This week I decided to publish a poem that I wrote during the semester for my course in creative writing. Enjoy!
It scurried quick across the floor
like no one was watching.
Heart beating,
Head pounding,
The steps got louder and louder until it was too late,
he was here.
Any family member who meets him never comes home.
We cry out for them in the night,
but he gives us a fright.
Eventually we have to turn out the light.
Today was the day I was to go,
I begged and pleaded, I told them “No!”
They pushed me out under the wall,
and I saw him waiting for me,
with no surprise at all.
He was big and fluffy,
dark and light,
but not as scary as I had imagined.
Stories about him had been told for years,
I gained many fears.
Now though, I am not scared at all,
I am small and dark,
quick and discrete.
I know he’s bigger,
but I’ll be hard to beat.
He chased me around and around
until I was forced to stop.
In a room humans say is the “bathroom”
but I do not.
We mice don’t have bathrooms,
We don’t have diddly squat.
Up against the wall
I can’t find a crack.
I know there is no going back.
He opens his mouth and picks me up,
although I’m not his dinner,
I have good luck.
We go around the house,
from one room to the next.
He doesn’t put me down,
but I have a feeling I’ll be different than the rest.
He makes noises at others of his kind,
to tell them that I am his and they can kiss his behind.
I think to myself what a funny game they play,
treating us like toys when we certainly don’t like games.
Down the stairs, up the stairs,
Around and around.
Waiting and hoping to get out of town.
I finally do it, I play a game.
The only one we learned on little mouse lane.
I play dead, as they call it.
I pretend I’m not there.
The big cat drops me but I don’t dare move,
If he sees me he’ll catch me, and I’ll be actually dead soon.
A voice in a distance says a name and the big cat goes running.
I wait a while and I scurry off again,
back into the wall where I belong.
The mice cheer and sing their song.
I tell this story again and again,
to remind the mice of where we belong
and what we are to them.
The mice are eager to hear what the big cat is like,
they lean in close to remember the fight.
Every mouse wants to meet him and win the fight,
because it won’t be too much longer before the big cat says,
Goodnight.
