[New-Poetry] rodent poems sought

[Richard Wilsnack]

Bob Grumman wrote:
> Strange, I can't remember ever composing a poem with either a rat or a 
> mouse in it.  Anyone else have lacunae in their poems like that--I 
> mean an absence of something very common that most poets write about?  
> I've had dogs and cats, and different kinds of birds.  Fish.  
> Lizards.  Squirrels.  Most animals, but not mice and rats.
>
> --Bob G. 
Lest we forget...

    "freddy the rat perishes"

        by Don Marquis [aka archy], 1927

    listen to me there have
    been some doings here since last
    i wrote there has been a battle
    behind that rusty typewriter cover
    in the corner
    you remember freddy the rat well
    freddy is no more but
    he died game the other
    day a stranger with a lot of
    legs came into our
    little circle a tough looking kid
    he was with a bad eye

    who are you said a thousand legs
    if i bite you once
    said the stranger you won t ask
    again he he little poison tongue said
    the thousand legs who gave you hydrophobia
    i got it by biting myself said
    the stranger i m bad keep away
    from me where i step a weed dies
    if i was to walk on your forehead it would
    raise measles and if
    you give me any lip i ll do it

    they mixed it then
    and the thousand legs succumbed
    well we found out this fellow
    was a tarantula he had come up from
    south america in a bunch of bananas
    for days he bossed us life
    was not worth living he would stand in
    the middle of the floor and taunt
    us ha ha he would say where i
    step a weed dies do
    you want any of my game i was
    raised on red pepper and blood i am
    so hot if you scratch me i will light
    like a match you better
    dodge me when i m feeling mean and
    i don t feel any other way i was nursed
    on a tabasco bottle if i was to slap
    your wrist in kindness you
    would boil over like job and heaven
    help you if i get angry give me
    room i feel a wicked spell coming on

    last night he made a break at freddy
    the rat keep your distance
    little one said freddy i m not
    feeling well myself somebody poisoned some
    cheese for me im as full of
    death as a drug store i
    feel that i am going to die anyhow
    come on little torpedo don t stop
    to visit and search then they
    went at it and both are no more please
    throw a late edition on the floor i want to
    keep up with china we dropped freddy
    off the fire escape into the alley with
    military honors

        archy


Richard W. Wilsnack
rwilsnac at medicine.nodak.edu