November PAD Chapbook Challenge – Day 13: Black cat morning

 
Day 13: write a ‘luck’ poem
 
Black cat morning
 
Morning is a black cat crossing your path,
a little hiss, brush of legs. You tickle that fluffy belly.
He follows you a little until you run away.
 
Elevenses is a painter’s ladder you swerve to avoid,
stagger into the gutter, soak your Nikes
and narrowly miss being splattered by a 47 bus.
 
Lunchtime is a four-leaved clover you pluck
lying on the grass devouring a croque monsieur,
dreaming of a lottery win to a hippie paradise.
 
2pm has you plucking the petals of a daisy,
mumbling ‘she loves me, she loves me not’,
knowing you’ve overspent your lunch hour. Rebel.
 
Tea-time and you’re squinting to read the leaves,
see the future in a soppy mush of what resembles shit,
giving in to the knowledge that you’re crap at it.
 
Leaving time, you fight the rain all the way home,
close your heroic umbrella inside the hallway,
kick off your shoes, stub your toe on the cabinet.
 
8pm you spill salt, pinch and flick over one shoulder,
stir your coffee anti-clockwise, switch the light on,
spark a blackout during a penalty shoot-out.
 
10pm and it’s a close shave as you trip on a rug,
crash into the hall mirror but find it ain’t broke!
You touch wood, cross fingers, hug your lucky penny.
 
Midnight spies you gazing up at the night sky,
laughing at the crazy day it’s been,
wishing on a lonesome passing star. Thunder claps.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, November 14, 2026