wobbles the rat

by jota

Posted to Poetry on 2003-08-09 18:35:00

Rowena stood over the wobbly rat
Watched him tremble, quiver, then fall over
“Poisoned,” she stood, stooped over and uttered
hands behind clasped behind her back
To Martin who had seen him first
We were sipping coffee drinks and eating scones
By a fountain in a café esplanade
Watching the summer birds bathe and banter
Flock to feed
Off crumbs that I had scattered along the concrete tiles
Two mating birds were feeding beak to beak
While in the trellis above us, nits and bees flitted in and out
Of the grapes, green and red and nearly ripe

Martin wrinkled up his nose
They bite you know
And spread disease
Of course you’re right I agreed
And turned away
To watch Rowena watch the rat
Hands to hips she stood there
Bending peering down at
The woozy thing now upright nearly so
Padding lurching
Shuffling along on waxy footed claws
Dithering tail and all,
And just as sudden it keeled over
Serves him right, my brother muttered
And turned the stock pages of the morning paper

Later that night, down the street there was this cat
Stuck two days in a tree
Too petrified to move
But mewed for hours upon end
Dreadful noisy hours ticked by us in amber
Nothing worked not even milk or tuna
Would coax her down
In protest Rowena marched down
To the local firehouse, where shirtsleeved boy-men
Peeved and smiling came out from beneath her verbal blows
Roared they came from two blocks up the street, stopped and
Fired a swooshing stream from their water cannon
Scattering the creature to the tip-top of the tree
Where it jiggled and swayed – and its owner prayed as by now
A crowd had gathered to watch as
Loosened leaves and spray washed down upon us
The rescuers poked the cat with their ladder
(the cat finally leapt, fell down, bounced once or twice upon a blanket that we held
then it raced beneath a porch beyond her owner’s reach)

Just then I asked the animal control lady
Standing there next to me
Just exactly what would they do
Should they come upon a rat
Poisoned but not yet dead
We’d fix it, she said, smiling, giving me a wink
She made pretend to prick a needle in her arm
Clenched her teeth and made a funny screek
Which means, I guess, he’d be gone in a blink

Next day we went back to the same cafe
Of course, we did not see the wobbly rat
Instead we sipped our coffee drinks and ate more scones
Mine was rock hard about as tasty as arsenic
I think Rowena had some kind of orange flavored bread

These were just little things
Nothing for me to ponder still
Except for something about the human heart
And Rowena
Kind to cats and creatures and all lost men and boys
Like me, and Martin and my brother
Which just goes to prove
That even a rat can have a friend
And so can you

Martin and Rowena dissolved their marriage of four years in the spring of 2001. Martin sold the house. Rowena moved to Miami Beach. I don’t know who finally got to keep the cats.