The Mouse

Painting by Lili Ruane


The Mouse


It's good to have poems
That begin with tea,
And end with God.

A man is drinking tea,
Let's say, and a mouse
Runs across the floor.

It makes him think
Of all hidden things.
A mouse is a furry

Cruelty with paws.
It's a secret with ears,
A shame the man

Thought he could tell
No one of, a shame
That searches quietly

For kernels of grain
Below that awful
Cat of Augustine.


Robert Bly

from "Morning Poems".