Mice, Mean Men and Aardvarks

 

I see a strange thing on the floor

Much like a question mark

An offering never seen before

I’ve not been invaded by an aardvark

 

And in the garden I do slaughter

Slugs before they cross the sill

With recycled dirty dish water

Those nasty slugs I kill

 

So if not slugs and if not aardvarks

A mouse, it must surely be

Who brings such question marks

That are left to frighten me?

 

I cannot crush his little body

I must set him free

Since we’ll never be chummy

Trap him, that’s the key

 

Pied Piper let’s him in with ease

And since he won’t eat cheese

Leave peanut butter ‘n crackers

To make sure he’s very pleased

 

When Mr. Mouse is finished eating

And heads out for the street

A one way door that he must abhor

Ends his after snack retreat

 

Now, this is where the men come in

To whom I have this to say:

You are those mean employers

Who I must put up with every day

 

So when my Pied Piper is full

With a little fattened mouse

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

On the doorstep of your house

 

I visit each mean employer

In the wee hours of the morn

While they sleep

Their doorstep I adorn

 

Mice, mean men, and question marks

Are some things which make me freak

And things that go bump in the dark

And sometimes things that creek

 

Some nights a door may slam nearby

And with anguish I outcry

Or from a shelf pushed by an elf

A book may fall into the hall

 

While wide awake and trembling

These frightening things remembering

I sometimes lock my knees in fright

Terrified of what’s not in sight

 

But then I pray, Lord, my soul do keep

From mice, mean men, and aardvarks

Or doors that bang, things that creep

Bumps or thumps hard ‘n dark

 

Later, when my nerves do calm

And I recall the fattened mouse

I smile and sigh with aplomb

He’s no longer in my house

 

§§§

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Copyright © 2009 by Jane Doe Smith Rogers. All rights reserved.

Reviews

[trinityluv122]

how can anyone compete with such a brilliant write, reminds me of an australian writer Spike Milligan, you have genious in your work, love it.

[Melissa Rose]

I enjoy how this tells the honest truth in a humerous manner. Normally, I don't enjoy rhyming poetry, but these rhymes fit in with the flow of the poem, which often doesn't happen. Nice write, and welcome to Writers Cafe :)