By Rhys Hughes
Silky Salathiel
Silky Salathiel was a travelling cat
with the taste of the Orient on the tip of his tongue.
He wandered the streets of Mandalay
enticed by the scents of ginger and lime,
where the oldest songs are sung
in the Rub-Al-Khali
he scratched at the rugs in Bedouin tents.
.
I knew him well when I was young.
We sailed the Brahmaputra in an old sea-chest,
lived in a basket in Kathmandu,
climbed the mountains of the Hindu Kush,
bathed in fountains of milk in Xanadu,
and I was the friend whom he loved best;
the oldest fish in the Caspian Sea.
.
But of course I lived longer than him
(now he is gone memories are all that remain).
He was not just a cat but a travelling cat
who danced flamenco in the castles of Spain,
licked the cheese in shady Provence
and drunk the ale in the snowy Ukraine.
Silky Salathiel the travelling cat
with the taste of the East on the tip of his tongue
and the taste of the West
on the tip of
his tail.
THE CASANOVA KANGAROO
The Casanova Kangaroo
is a bounder
but he’s no cad
or utter rotter
(and if he was an otter
he wouldn’t be
fishy either). He’s not a
womaniser
who disguises his desire
as charm. In fact
the only thing he has in
common with
the original Casanova is
that they both wrote
their memoirs.
Chapter One,
‘My Early Life in a Pouch’
PANDEMONIUM Pandemonium is not a state of disorder but a state ruled by pandas. They will try to bamboozle you with booze made from bamboo shoots and seduce you with the music of bamboo flutes. The capital of the state of Pandemonium is called Nebulosity City but I don’t know why. No one actually lives there. Pandas prefer the countryside.
.
Rhys Hughes has lived in many countries. He graduated as an engineer but currently works as a tutor of mathematics. Since his first book was published in 1995 he has had fifty other books published and his work has been translated into ten languages.
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