High Tide

Only the head of a flat black cat shows above dark water, ears up, whiskers out and two round white eyes looking sideways. A tiny cross stands in for the mouth. Rings of ripples spread around it, and a trail of bubbles drifts down through the navy below. The sky is plain medium blue. Thin bright blue outlines pick out the edge of the head and the waterline.

Periwinkle, navy and black, cool and quiet. The waterline cuts across the middle, so the top half is empty sky and the bottom half deep water with bubbles. The cat sits right on that line. On a phone it reads as a joke; on a wall it gets calmer. It suits a bathroom or a child's room.