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Contests : Wergle Flomp Free Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2011 : Megan Elaine Davis
A PSALM OF MICE
What the heart of the young mouse said to the psalmist
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but a baited trap!—
For the mouse is dead that slumbers,
hibernating: winter's nap.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the traps about this house—
"'Welcome death,' quoth the rat"
Was not spoken of the mouse.
Not engorgement, and not starving,
Is our destined foodie way:
But to hoard, that each tomorrow
Find us stashing more away.
Tails are long, and ears are twitching,
And our tummies, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled burning engines,
Rumble for that cheese we crave.
In the eaves and in the rafters,
Scavenging with other mice,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a rodent with a life.
Trust no housewife, howe'er pleasant!
Let the cats by her hand be fed!
Sneak, —sneak into pantry cupboards!
Sugar below, and oatmeal o'erhead!
Lives of great mice all remind us:
We can crawl in spice racks, dine,
and departing, leave behind us
paw prints in the flakes of thyme.
Paw prints, that perhaps another,
Scurrying o'er life's countertop,
A forlorn and mangy brother
Seeing, may do a belly flop!
Let us, then, though small and furry,
With a heart for any fate,
ever braver, ever sneaky,
learn to steal that mouse trap bait.
This poem won an honorable mention in the 2011 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest sponsored by Winning Writers. It is a parody of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life". Author Megan Elaine Davis received a cash prize of $75.
About Megan Elaine Davis
While waiting for her two cats to start contributing to the household income, Megan Elaine Davis writes "from a small peninsula" while wrapped in a purple blanket. Born and raised in Maine, she moved from New England to Old Blighty in 2007 after marrying an Englishman. She has published three novels with co-author Susan Page Davis, and currently writes poetry, short fiction, and articles. She loves cats, mice, Agatha Christie, chocolate, cherries, musty book shops, and working on self discovery. When she isn't writing, she spends her time in a place called Moss Mountain making tiny animals from felt: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mossmountain.
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