She had green eyes, that excellent seer,
And little peaks to either ear.
She sat there, and I sat here.

She spoke of Egypt, and a white
Temple, against enormous night.

She smiled with clicking teeth and said
That the dead are never dead;

Said old emperors hang like bats
In barns at night, or ran like rats--
But empresses came back as cats!

I reread that poem in fond memory of Tennie Yoder, M.A., (1900-1998) friend, teacher, patroness of animals.

Thinking of Bast, I like to take a quick break to look at the ancient Egyptian cat sculpture -- in a real museum in Berlin -- that sits in the same pose as the cat hieroglyphs above.