Big Paw

The cat’s paw keeps getting bigger.
Soon we will have to give it a name.

At the vet, the young receptionists all laugh.
Tell us it’s perfectly natural
though they haven’t seen
a single case like it.

We purchase pills, wrestle vitamins,
work cream after cream
into red skin.

The paw gets
bigger.

Our house gets smaller.
Tiny as a toothpick
in a club sandwich.

We can’t keep anything