Skinny and starving

Bloodless as a mosquito

Lit up and skulking on factory smoke

Thin as a punctuation mark

At the end of a sad sentence,

The alley cat

Homeless in Quito.

I fell in love with you

Your green and yellow eyes

Your gouged tail

I thought you were

More beautiful than a flock of doves.

I fell in love with you

I would give you a ring and take you

On a cruise to the Galapagos,

Diamond rings and smoky wine.

I fell in love with you

Your eyes hungry upon me

Begging for a scrap of tortilla

I saw straight through you—

When the ocean began to sing with low tide

And the streetlights dimmed with tropical rains

I took out my piano and my saxophone

I wrote this song for my sweetheart,

El Gato Triste.

When you crossed the darkened bridge

You never got to hear my song finished

The bus was coming

Now the rain weeps for you

On my fading piano notes.

I will never forget you

My love

El Gato Triste.