The Blue Cat Walks the Earth
Frank Reeve
Price: £8.95
The Blue Cat Walks the Earth
The Blue Cat is a courteous, outspoken, well-read, somewhat randy anarchist ready again to lay down one of his lives for what he believes. He's a cross between Top Cat, Puss in Boots, Schrodinger's Cat and the Cat in a Hat. He's a trickster, a prankster, an illusionist and an illusion. And he's back.
The Blue Cat Walks the Earth is the third book in which Frank Reeve has let the Blue Cat out of the bag. He's a couple of years older, but he's still the actor he was. The only way he can get people to listen is to pretend he's not saying what he is saying. Of course, he's telling the truth. And of course, you don't have to believe him. Nine lives out of ten, the truth is unbelievable.
This book comes with a CD of Frank Reeve reading these new poems accompanied by Don Davis on sax and Joe Deleault on piano.
Sample Poems
The Blue Cat Blues
The river rose, done took my house,
the Devil made off with my jack;
sail or swim like a fish–
how'll I ever get it back?
Chorus:
No way today
to wash the blackness from the sea;
no way, no way
to take the blueness out of me.
The levee's broke, no more canal,
the Gulf has swallowed up town hall;
no place safe, no dry land–
Satan's won the Power Ball.
Chorus:
No way today
to wash the blackness from the sea;
no way, no way
to take the blueness out of me.
My girl ran off where livin's free,
FEMA got the best of me;
whites drove out, blacks swam in–
gone, long gone racial harmony.
Chorus:
No way today
to wash the blackness from the sea;
no way, no way
to take the blueness out of me.
Lower Ninth was drowned, our town,
lost my parrot and my pup;
jack all gone, no help coming–
no one here to build the levees up.
Chorus:
No way today
to wash the blackness from the sea;
no way, no way
to take the blueness out of me.
A Blue Study: Fiscal Policy vs Monetary
At first it cost a nickel,
then went up to a dime;
before you knew it took two bits
to dial a local line:
life's been getting dearer
by anti–revolutionary bounds–
the rich are rising up
and the poor are falling down.
Inflation shrank our savings,
then the subprime scandal burst,
the feds bailed out their banker friends
and left us in the dirt:
life's been getting dearer
by anti–revolutionary bounds–
the rich are rising up
and the poor are falling down.
Gas is now two–fifty,
half the price of bread–
I wish I had my nickels back
or my old house instead:
life's been getting dearer
by anti–revolutionary bounds–
the rich are rising up
and the poor are falling down.
The Blue Cat Hits the Ballot Box
The Cat went into the high–school gym
to vote for a ticket politically blue;
they gave him a sheet of white paper and said,
"You'll need a plain yellow pencil, too."
'Ain't I been here before?' thought the Cat by the door;
'if it's like last time, forget it;
whoever has hopes for real change must still
keep on fighting to get it.'
He picked up a pencil and made forty black marks
and surveyed the white ballot when he got through;
'x' in the boxes–boxes of 'x'es
were forty square dreams half black and half blue.
'Back in my youth,' thought the Cat in the booth,
'it was always like last time; forget it;
whoever has wanted real change has had
to keep fighting to get it.'
He laid down the pencil and pulled back the curtain
and folded the ballot (as instructed) in two,
and wondered if ever the good cat he dreamed of
would turn out to be half black and half blue.
'Sure, I've been there before,' thought the Cat out the door,
'I'll never forget it;
all my lives I've been hoping for change and I still
will keep fighting to get it.'
