A Cat Named Sloopy Song by Rod McKuen ‧ 1972
Lyrics
For a while the only earth that Sloopy knew was her sandboxTwo rooms on 55th Street was her domainEvery night she'd sit in the window among the avocado plantsWaiting for me to come homeMy arms filled with canned liver and loveWe'd talk into the night then contented but missing somethingShe, the earth she never knew, me, the hills I ran while growing bentSloopy should have been a cowboy's catWith prairies to run, not linoleumAnd real live catnip miceNo one to depend on but herselfI never told her but in my mind I was a midnight cowboy even thenRiding my imaginary horse down 42nd streetGoing off with strangers to live an hour long cowboy's lifeBut always coming home to Sloopy who loved me bestFor a dozen summers we lived against the world an island on an islandShe'd comfort me with purringI'd fatten her with smilesWe grew rich on trust needing not the beach or butterfliesI had a friend named Ben who painted buildings like Rouault menHe went awayMy laughter tired Lillian after a timeShe found a man who only smiledBut Sloopy stayed and stayedWinter 1959 old men walk their dogsSome are walked so often that their feetLeave little pink tracks in the soft gray snowWoman fur on furElegant and easy only slightly pureHailing cabs to take them round the block and backWho is not a love seeker when December comes?Even children pray to Santa ClausI had my own love safe at homeAnd yet I stayed out all one night and the next day tooThey must of thought me crazy screaming Sloopy SloopyAs the snow came falling down around meI was a madman to have stayed awayOne minute more than the appointed hourI'd like to think a golden cowboy snatched her from the window sillAnd safely saddle bagged she rode to ArizonaShe's stalking lizards in the cactus now perhaps, bitter, but freeI'm bitter tooAnd not a free man anymoreBut once was a time in New York's jungle in a treeBefore I went into the world in search of other kinds of loveNobody owned me, but a can named SloopyLooking back perhaps she's been the only human thingThat ever gave love back to me
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