I had a tragically brief relationship with a rat (some say it is a field mouse, but "field mouse" is not conducive to poetic meter tho' I am meeting with some argument on that front as well). I met Niccolo as my brother's cat was "playing" with him. I relegated the cat, Miss Lee-lee, to my brother's room. I put little Niccolo into a Birkenstock shoe box, and I gave him a warm rag to curl up in and a few pieces of cat food (I know rats or "field mice" like cat food as we had one in our house for a while that used to taunt us from the cat food bowl--- but I digress). Three hours after rescuing said rat, he succumbed to the mortal wound inflicted upon him by the evil cat, Leah. I wished to bury him properly, but as I was preparing for the funeral, my rat-hating husband "interred" him in the trash can. Sensing my need for comfort, a friend sent me a lovely tribute to Nic. "Ah," thought I, "what better way to memorialize little Niccolo than through poetry?" Hence the blog. If you are a rat poet, then I kindly ask for your own tributes to Niccolo, whose untimely death, I hope, will at least serve the world of poetry. Of course, I also welcome any other rodent poetry. Perhaps others have special rodent "connections" they would like to share. I should add that I am quite fond of squirrels.
The Tracinator is going to attempt a rat poem in the form of a sestina. I may not be posting for a bit. I am sure that the many rat poet fans out there are sorely disappointed to hear that. It is something I feel I must do...
No comments:
Post a Comment