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To A Man

Tall, frightful, mountainous man

the fear you strike within is easy to explain

sheer size causes my heart to pound

so fast and loud that it is all I can do to contain

it from leaping outside my tiny frame

 

With whisker twitching and hide flinching

I crept from the safety of my hole, inching

one small step by paltry step

seeking meagre crumbs; mere scraps of food

to feed my hungry brood

 

And there I chanced upon you

(well, it was your dark and menacing shoe

that first caught my beady little eye)

then, fleetingly, thoughts I was about to die

stopped me in my tracks, and there was I,

wondering ~ should I fight or fly?

 

Yes, there I stood, frozen in time

and it seemed that you were too

as we, the two of us, both you and I,

for one moment (or was it two?)

took measure and looked each other in the eye

 

But I am not a silly fool

and though I am just an insignificant being

I have learned a golden rule ~

at the very instant a man moves his feet

it is time I must be fleeing!

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Written by
kate-little
Australian
Published
Sep 13, 2011
Lines·Words
26·196
Notes

A rejoinder to Robert Burns' poem, "To A Mouse".'

© Kate Little 2011

All Rights Reserved

Permission

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