A Song for Clean-Up on Aisle Five

Sing for your cerebral supper with cat food and cold cuts

Feb 26, 2024

Don’t like reading? Allow me to read it to you 👈

Cat food and cold cuts
Add to the list
Don’t ask why
Only these two
—additional—
must you add
To and too
Extra items.

Write them down
Consciousness margin scribble
Psychic paper scraps
Smudged palm reader inks
Mental Post-Its.
Do.
Not.
For.
Get.

Light up that neon sign
in the Times Square of your brain.
Cat food and cold cuts
Cat food and cold cuts
Blink
Blink
Your song.
Sing it.

Your life melody,
opus,
arrangement,
score
—needs more ingredients.
Cat food and cold cuts
More movements
More notes
Essential lines
Critical verses
A middle eight
A chorus.

Cat food and cold cuts
For you
For your day
For your life
For your survival.
Pierce the can,
unwrap the tissue
Absorb the essence
of your supermarket haul
But…

Do not eat!
Imaginary Totems
Invisible Talismans
Spirit Pantry Metaphors
Cat food and cold cuts
Your sur-thrival depends
Stock up!
Critical ingredients
to you
to your soul
to your song.
Remember x3.

Cat food for sass
Cold cuts for salt
Sass and salt
Sass and salt
SASS AND SALT!
This life list means business.

No questions
Close eyes
Picture cat food
Now ham
Visualize prosciutto
or bacon
or baloney.
Listen to the melody
Cat food and cold cuts.
The supermarket sings its confidence chorus.

Time?
Energy?
Patience?
No questions.

Cats know no time
Moggy and Tom and Pico and Sal
Nero and Magpie and Cookie and Jack
Cats live in the now
The neow of the meow.
Release the cat!
(Within you.)

Leg rub
Tail swish
Food demands at the foot of patience
Every verse in the cat song:
—has purpose
—is complex
—goes deep
—spins words as meaning
like toilet paper off the roll.

Cat talk.
Here is mouse on your mat
Here is disdain at your neediness
Here is love
Here is gone and there
Now lap.
Now keyboard.
Now neck.

Cat philosophy
Only here
Only now
Neow of meow
That is all
Cat is cat.
Be like cat.

Cat food and cold cuts
Take a number
What’s your number?
Do you like your number?
Is there a better number?
Did someone cut in?
Do you have their number?
Do you have your slices?

Stand up!
Defend!
Glass case, throw shapes
False colors, harsh light, nitrates
Truth and fable
A little this, a lotta that.
Salt x3
Too much?

No questions.
Cold cuts save days.
No questions.
Cold cuts stretch dollars.
No questions.
Cold cuts bring flavor.
No questions.
Exact weight.
Careful carving.
Underserved and hungry.

Exact exact exact! (x3)
Keep fresh
stay tasty
Get in that sandwich
Add zest
State your weight
Proud is.
As.
Take a number
Wait your turn
Check the list
A half pound of pure.

Be a quick solve,
a good-in-a-pinch,
a savior of the lunchbox.
Of life.
Serve hot serve cold
Don’t sit out in summer
Don’t stay too long at the party.
Do promote taste
Come on strong
—but also subtle.
Be flavorful and good
Work well with others.

Be firm
Not too rich
Be salty
Don’t cause heart failure
Refine your taste
Slice with care and precision
Mind your fingers
Be delicate or substantial.
Or both
Always be worth it.
Of value.
Essential.

Cat food and cold cuts.
Cat food and cold cuts.
Add one to the list.
Now the other.
Both.
Don’t forget.
Put in your basket.
Get in line.
10 items or less.
Go home.

Home?

Tap spoon to lid
Kick bowl against base board
Kitty kitty out the door
Call your life to you.
Leap off the banister,
the shelf,
the antique sideboard.
Straight into the confidence abyss
with your cat-body twist.
And your nine lives
And your four furry feet
And your one body.
Play x3 x5 x10
Now sleep.

Lick the salt
Make the sandwich
Add the sauce
Flip the saucer
Chase the tail
Add more protein
Don’t be stingy
Zoom at midnight
Claim the sofa
Make the biscuits
Bring your lover a rat
—or a lizard
—or the foot of a rabbit.

Check use by dates
Knock NO to the floor
with lazy paw
Be in
Or out
Or be in and out and ask to come in again.
Cough up a fur ball of fury
Rage at the day
Play the game
Buy now!
On Sale!
Two for one!
Going fast!
Kitty want a cold cut?

Add to the list.

Go behind the scenes and see inspirations for this post👇

A Song for Clean-Up on Aisle Five

Janeen McCrae

Feb 26

Read full story

This week’s amends…

"I always have one major question…what do you want your audience to feel? Do you want to scare the shit out of them? Squirm in their seat? Feel beautiful? And how they answer that question gives me cues to work on. I translate their words into music."
- Angelo Badalamenti