[New-Poetry] big rodent business

[KitKelen at umac.mo]

three big rat poems

Christopher Kelen

1
give stone to the stone
height to the mountain
green to the pine
give courage to men

virtue and loyalty
just this poor house where
as in the book of songs
a famous rat eats the seedlings
as they rise

I could leave
but to me
this old hut means friendship
and who knows
what this rat was before
or may yet be
2
the rat got through
the heavy mud wall
gnaws the silk on the loom

it leaves some clay
but not a stitch of cloth

withered mulberries greet first light
the empty loom shows chill dusk

the common folk
are great advocates
of fat horses,
gorgeous clothes

how hungry and feeble
the aspiring are

heaven trains its eye
on this rat
3
the day before yesterday you left
my hair turned
white as the sleepless grass

now here the insects
are loud with stillness
the rat rustles round out of doors
half a month since the wind
ran through

always the one
immortal rat



from --

After Meng Jiao: Responses to the Tang Poet
by Christopher Kelen
published in 2008 by VAC (Chicago, IL)
on-line orders through http://vacteam.com/books.htm