2025 Commended poem: 'Tchéru' by Michelle Dumont

 
Tchéru

The last time I saw Tchéru
she was yeowling in a canvas bag
slung over the shoulder
of a bony soldier
sprinting down the garden path
my dad on his heels
shaking a broom
like
a battle-axe.

They were trying
to starve them out
she was collateral.

I want to make her a war hero
but I can’t.
Perhaps all she instinctively feared
of humans
was true.

Yet,
he came back,
after a decade,
that soldier.
Knocked on our door.
Recognised us.
Said he was sorry
about the cat.

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Dead Cat Poetry Prize - winners and commendees, 2025

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Michelle's latest work focuses on how to paws and unravel the non-human and more-than-human world a whisker away.