Demonstration (Martha Zweig)

See, just so: one can pinch
Gently the cat’s paw exactly as
One pinches a snapdragon

For exactly the same intriguing
Spreading and opening, and curious
Yield to the fingers;

So that the toe’s sheath gives out
Smoothly its clear paw (not yet
Fierce, for the cat believes you are playing);

Whereupon the claw itself imagines
Fangs for the snapdragon,
Otherwise why such a congruence in
The great plan of things?

Each being necessary, the cat goes
Forever on paws which are flowers,
And, in the garden, the innocent summer
Dragons become literal.