Share & Shairi Alike

Monday's Child posted an adorable illustration by G. Shepheard of two little Dutch girls and two little cats - who are apparently fascinated by one another.  As the mom of twins, this prompt was irresistible to me.

Therefore, I decided I needed to write a quatrain kind of poem, in order to get the two and two/twin thing going.  I visited The Poets Garret for an idea, and found - to my delight - the form Shairi. 

Twins

Sister and I saw two small cats.  They looked at us and said, “Mew!  Mew!”

Sister observed, “Like us, they’re twins – that’s twice as nice!” I said, “So true.”

She asked the cats if they would like to come with us, or just pursue

some wee field mice.  Each thought a bit, then climbed aboard her wooden shoe…

…and my shoe, too.

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For those who might be interested, here's the scoop on the Shairi:

This is a rather unusual form, originating from Georgia in the 12th Century. The English language version is a mono rhymed quatrain of sixteen (16) syllables broken up into four sections.
There are two versions, the Dabali Shairi or low version, and the Magala Shairi or high version. The low version is not really suited to the Iamb poet as it consists of five syllables, followed by three syllables, a caesura and then a triple rhyme. Here is the schematic;

x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a)

The Magali Shairi is much better suited to the Iambic user as sections are broken up into fours (or two iambs), there is still a caesura after the second section, but the requirement is only for a double rhyme. Here is that schematic;

x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a)