| AN ODE ON FRED THE LIBRARY CAT By Sandy Lee Carlson Like our self-starting founder Ben Franklin– Statesman, diplomat, thinker, believer In books as the building blocks of a thinking Nation of free people– Our Fred the Cat Shed the stark limits of her humble birth For a lettered life at 269 Main Street South. Like young Hermes arrived on Olympus, ready to do big things, Fred Filled a gap in the lives of old people, Kids, other cats. Yes, Fred was a delight To so many old and lonesome people And children, offering homework assistance And challenging her neighbors and the world To talk openly about our values: Do we stick with our own kind or open Our hearts and minds to those who are different? Serve the greater good or surrender To an angry voice shooing Fred away In a letter to Governor O’Neill That the governor shooed back to our town? This would be a local conversation Among town letter writers young and old Until the Gray Lady, like Athena Put it on the wire and people read About Fred from Maine to the Philippines And wrote in with a single, humane voice: I suggest a little cooperation among the species…. I am pleased that a member of the animal Kingdom has received such wide attention And approbation and has set such an Excellent example for your younger patrons…. Thank God there are people to help lost and helpless animals…. A Las Vegas feline, lawyerlike, made A case for the value of workplace cats. Another took a philosophical View in line with Hippocrates: Do no harm. On the tenth year of Fred the Cat’s employ At the library, Woodbury’s lawyers Found there was no case for kicking cats out: Fred had earned her tenure as the town’s feline, Earned the right to call her library home. Closing this lesson on civic engagement, The selectmen voted their agreement. The world again wrote to Fred, offering This postscript: Hats off to residents of Woodbury, Connecticut, for allowing you to live The rest of your natural life In the only home you have ever had, The Library…. Wanting to live in the library Shows good taste, it sets a noble example For us all. Would that more of us spent more time in the library! THIS OLD TOWN HALL By David Bibbey, Woodbury Poet Laureate, 2018 – 2021 To play this video of the poem performance, click on this link below, paste it into your browser, or go to our Videos page from our Home Page. https://vimeo.com/311487805 |
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