to eat alone

I read one where her father,
a cat preying in solitude,
instructed us on the virtues of
superior people: 

visits short, silences long, inns of homes.

I read: make them all your guests,
be a gracious one and eat alone.

But I am starved of home.

If they tell you you're a guest,
listen: keep your visit short. 

But my life is not an inn,
and my cat needs me at his side 
to eat.

(after "Solitude" by Marianne Moore)

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