Louis Wain (1860-1919) by Oonah V. Joslin

Louis Wain invented cats
playing cricket, wearing hats,
anthropomorphic,
having a picnic
angular, brindled, monocled cats

in a world of cats of every hue,
a cat that could paint a portrait of you.
Louis Wain was one of the few
who could talk to cats
and knew what cats knew.

Louis was, like all artists,
a traveller in time who drew
on a different world view.
They said he was schizophrenic
put him in an asylum, called him insane.

Still, Louis Wain created cats
from the fluffy to the eccentric
from the psychedelic, to the sublime.
Who knew electricity was feline?
Maybe only God and Louis Wain.

Oonah V Joslin 2025