I Cannot Learn to Hate a Mouse

I Cannot Learn to Hate a Mouse

I cannot learn to hate a mouse,
Despite their leavings in our house,
Despite they steal the cat’s kibbles,
  That in our kitchen drawers they nibble,
I mean there’s mouse shit on our silverware!

Since negotiations wouldn’t halt them,
I bought a bag of snap mouse traps,
Set one within each kitchen drawer,
  Waited a day, a little more,
Until from therein heard ‘Ker-Chunk!’

The first one was caught by the foot,
He walked about with a mousetrap boot,
I dragooned him into a flower pot,
  Took him outside to let him out,
And as I released his foot, he jumped

All the way from my hand to the ground,
Ran a yard off, then just sat down,
In this new world so big he had no knowing
  Of where it was to where he was going,
Looking up at me in dewy eyed mouse wonder
 
The next three caught were stone cold dead,
The bar snapped each behind the head,
I took each out to the garage trash,
  Pulled up the bar and let them fall
They did not move, or squeak at all

The last one was what broke my heart,
Still a young one, for all his part,
He sat up dead caught in his trap,
His hands still poised as if to grasp
  Another morsel of catfood, to add
In his still puffed and chubby chipmunk cheeks

In this world of nothing lost, nor gained,
Can one post-mortem weigh the same?
They are tangible things, these souls once severed,
  Yet where are they, and what remains?
I put them out Wednesday night with the garbage

I cannot learn to hate a mouse,
But, not enough I clean the house,
I did what I had to, but henceforth,
  I will not kill mice anymore,
Unless they come back to the silverware drawer