a grey matter

i heard the snap and crackle
as the trap sprung
and felt my soul shrink
another degree north
on my moral encompassing
as i reckon GOD

i felt smaller than you
as i saw your heart still striving
and pressed my finger down
to assuage my guilt a little

what did you see

callousness or sorrow

it's a paradox
but i love you

Bruce Herbert Fader 02-11-2021 14:59
-mouse-

Bruce:
Nicely said. I can relate to this. I like that you thought to ask that question. And it is a paradox.

I don't like it either. If they would just stay out in the shed when it's cold. I know they aren't literate. But they ingore the sign on the garage that has a circle with a picture of a rodent and a line through it. I thought that was a universal warning.
My absolution comes from giving them a repectable burial. Each group has a separate cemetary - the grey ones and the brown ones.
Steve

Hi Steevo,

We had a mouse arrive at the house from my fiancée's storage unit when we moved in (best guess). I made 8 attempts on its life initially and it evaded all of them; 9 if you include the episode with the bathroom plunger! At Christmas time with the little bugger still alive and with it keeping itself to non food areas of the house I called a truce. Then over the last week my fiancée noticed more mice that were definitely not the original. I have been subjected to their little reigns of terror before and never abused myself of the good habit of storing all food in metal tins, or glass jars. That war was one only with the equivalent of an atom bomb, but that is not an option this time, because I am not putting my dog or the kids at risk unless we have a place to go for a month while the toxins clear as best they can.

One mouse I can tolerate, but these others are leaving faeces everywhere and so the war is back on, but that doesn't stop me from hating every minute of it, knowing I am killing something on the mere grounds that it is inconvenient and contaminating my living environment. My objection to it is the same as with sport hunting; it becomes gratuitous. I have always been more of a rescuer than a slayer despite my extensive training in the latter.

Thank you for understanding Steevo.

Brucefur

hey. It's funny. I read the mouse trap as a metaphor for an unkind act in a relationship...hehe. Wow. To think I was searching for deeper meaning when it was really about a mouse!

I had really bad mice issues in my house when I first moved in...it's an old Victorian. Traps helped but didn't cut it...what I ended up doing was setting out decon and since then I've never seen even a sign of a mouse.. it works. I put it under kitchen sink, and in the basement.

Trapping aside, I like this one as a non mouse related poem too...like someone got tempted to step outside their relationship and saw the "still striving heart" has the other person trying to hold on to the relationship. hehe.

good times!

Should a man, corrupt and mad, a danger to others, be put to death?

I find it impossible for anyone other than maybe a hindu to have any regard for the life of a mouse. The fun game when we were kids was to flashlight them near the grainarys and shoot the little worthless critters with either a .22 or earlier with BB guns. I too give them a cemetary,, in the cat's tummy. That way the mouse huggers can at least believe that the cycle of life continues.

Nice job on the read Bruce.

Mr. Urine,, yes.

Em, but a simple yes doesn't change minds. What are the reasons and methods for this action? And why, when we have taken the life of another, by our own judgement rather than theirs, do we not allow them to do the same to us?

We do if they draw faster.

I'm both silent and strong.

less chance of getting shot, unless Johnny or I see you hanging around a school at night.

Fair enough. But in times of peace, should we merely sit silently, or should we recall past tragedies, and erect defenses against them? And when a nation undertakes this task, is communication, vast and open, not required?

open? Not a good idea, vast? probably, but remember to cut the cards. Or, do the hard part, show me a time of peace.

How do you define peace? I say it's cooperation, sharing of resources for mutual gain. War? Kill 'em all, take it all. I agree that war is more prevalent than peace, but both have always existed with humanity, or we'd all be dead.