“A Legend About Cats” appears in the new issue of the Asheville Poetry Review. Click here to subscribe.

They made Alexander just a bit tense.
He could rule the world, but not a tabby.
Julius Caesar could bash his way through Gaul
But faint if a lynx pissed near his tents.
Genghis Khan hacked a gruesome dynasty
All across Eurasia, but he would fall
From his horse at the sight of a sleeping cat.
Napoleon, never one for players
He couldn’t control, despised all felines.
Even Mussolini and Hitler, who sat
On brief empires, still had to say their prayers
When forced to face off with the tiger’s kind—
Those who perfected the art of the tormenter
Long ago, purring great long dreams of gore.