This poem is spillover from the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from nsfwords. It also fills the “Why be good?” square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Dreamwidth user Lone_cat. It belongs to the Telepathic Kittens thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Why Be Good?"

[December 2014]

Why be good? thought Mrrhow
the Mercurial as she lugged
the Christmas fish from
its platter into her lair.

Why be good? thought
Napoleon as he stalked
and slew the Christmas tree.

Why be good? thought
Cayenne as she sharpened
her fine claws on all the coats
hung on the coat-tree in the hall.

Why be good? thought Mrrhow,
but she thought about it, perhaps,
more than her littermates did.