OLD TOM & the TIGER (with Hepcat61)

(a nursery sonnet)  
http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/239494-old-tom-and-the-tiger/    
     
The tiger knew no cage but “habitat”      
The time that I have spent away from home    
She was the queen of her half-block domain      
Has never been like there and yet the same.    
She’d rest in summer shade like any cat      
To take me back, but limit where I'd roam,    
But then would come the cold mid-winter rain      
That brought me down each time the winter came.    
        
Old Tom, would lounge as well and watch her stalk      
Most times while deep in thought while I would tread    
As she would pace and watch the humans stare      
Ignoring humans even though I'd see,    
Old Tom would stride and match her walk for walk      
From shadow's movement when I'd raise my head,    
And she would smile to watch his strutting there      
For there you'd be, Old Tom, amusing me.    
        
But with the rain his queen would barely stir      
The bitter cold of rain would have me think    
These frigid rains that made her feel so sick,      
About the trees and grasslands of my birth,    
So lost, then came a rustle in her fur      
Before my mother's lessons were extinct,    
It was Old Tom with nip and tug and lick      
And since, companionship of your full worth.    
     
Old Tom would stay and play with her awhile,    
You always knew just when the time was right    
He always seemed to prod his tiger’s smile.      
To visit with your queen to her delight.    
     
     
With my gratitude for Geoff's permission to collaborate with his original write, as a call-and-response.