He Can’t Help It

Marge Piercy

Word Count 76

He can’t help it

A catbird has gone mad

or is dangerously obsessed.

He keeps attacking his image

in a livingroom window.

I open the window.  Then he

tries to get in through the screen.

He sees Schwartzie, my long

hair black cat, and goes nuts.

Even more furiously he hurls

his small body at the glass.

Schwartzie paws at the window,

gets bored, goes off for a nap.

The next day, the bird’s back.

Have I ever been that obsessed?

Maybe in college when I fell hard

every few months and hurled

my skinny body into lumpy beds

where no satisfaction ever lurked.

*

Marge has published 20 poetry collections, most recently, ON THE WAY OUT, TURN OFF THE LIGHT [Knopf, September 30, 2020]; 17 novels including SEX WARS.  PM Press reissued VIDA, DANCE THE EAGLE TO SLEEP; they brought out short stories THE COST OF LUNCH, ETC and MY BODY, MY LIFE [essays, poems]. She has read at over 500 venues here and abroad.