Poem #294 Tickles Us With Whiskers

Won't Fit!

by Amy LV

Students - did you know that a cat's whiskers have several purposes?  Whiskers help cats in many ways, most importantly in understanding whether they will fit through small spaces.  Because cats' whiskers are about the width of the widest part of their bodies, testing an opening with whiskers will help a cat know if s/he can make it through.  

I do not know why I wrote this poem.  If I did, I'd tell you.  But sitting on my couch last night, I began a poem titled, "blah."  It was going to use the word "blah" many times, in meter.  Then I began a poem about writing in loopy cursive.  Then our dog Cali came over for a little snuggle.  Snuggling her got me to looking at her whiskers which led to thinking about cat whiskers which led to wondering why cats have whiskers which led to this poem.

It's strange and fascinating to see the road trips our minds will take us on when we travel without a map.  If you have a story about following one thought to another through writing, please share it with me in the comments.

In case you were wondering, I did type the word whiskers in that spaced-out way to mimic the spacing of real cat whiskers.

You can learn more about the importance of cat whiskers at HowStuffWorks.

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