PET SHOP STORY

I should get up and sell mice

but I'll stay here instead

in the warm, embryonic bed,

and what is a mouse's life?

 

Getting your head crushed

for a bit of cheese,

or squirming like an addict

under the merciless paw.

 

I sink in dreams, a jaded skull

trailing hair all the way down

to the sad, depleted market

where I meet the others:

 

the mobile soup dispenser,

nail technician, vapour salesman,

the free clinic handing out

some virgin plastic.

 

This town is full of charity

while the defunct rest in coffins

devoid of any magic - there 

are shops that buy their clothes.

 

Yellow Mama Webzine, 2020, Editor Cindy Rozmus