Live reading by Andy Van Scoyoc – The Lamentation Project. Click here to visit her studio.
Snap traps break backs
And furry little necks
Glue traps render them powerless
Unless they skin themselves alive
Mice removal! Immediate response!
Call now to dispose of
Neutralise, snuff, exterminate
Pick your poison mouse
Vacor, strychnine or arsenic?
It won’t hurt but you’ll bleed to death
Internally, mustn’t scare the children
Or harm arrogant cats
Drowning in buckets
Electrocuted like criminals
There’s many ways to wipe out, execute and murder you
Slay, massacre and slaughter
Assassinate, neutralize, asphyxiate
Liquidate, lynch, annihilate
Obliterate, immolate, eradicate
Mouse, you don’t deserve to be put to death
I’m going to do the right thing
I’ll collect mouse body parts
From wicked deceptions
Frankenstein did it, so can I
Tiny head, torso and feet
Now you need a tail
Collected like macabre trophies
Mouse jigsaw complete!
A stitch in time saves nine
Ironic glue, sorry about that
Mouse Monster reconstructed
Now I’ll shock you back to life
Oh… using an electric mouse trap
See poor mouse, you cannot win
Dead or alive, you’re just
Futile
Taxidermy, by Vic and Lil Gallagher
Sharon Lawson
Valium Freak
© Copyright: Sharon Lawson™
Snow White of the macabre ❤️. When I read this I go down two entirely different paths. On the one hand I think of us as the two-legged walking variety of a lab rat when it comes to illness becoming in essence these walking
Frankensteins (inside and sometimes out) which then brings me to the other hand at the irony of how quick we are to wanna kill these little dudes and dudettes. (I’m guilty) I’m guessing you probably already know this but I didn’t, they are nearly as smart as humans and dogs AND did you know that these little dudes are single handedly the most important herbivore in the ecosystem? So totally not futile…Love where this took me Sharon and that precious reminder to be kind because we’re all just souls swimming in a fish bowl.
Thank you so much Jenny. It’s a comic yet grim reminder that mouse lives matter! I love what you kindly said, means a lot that you discovered two pathways. I’m going to re-read it and follow your footsteps 🙂
This is such a glorious piece Mouse and I literally squeal each time I reach the gloriously twisted ending. Oh, sweet irony. Shocked back to life by the very contraption set to steal it away. A delightful paradoxical ending that tops off a delightful verse. Period.
Thank you so much dearest friend, I love how you you said “squeal” with regards to the ending, a noise mice make upon death!!