Something Worse
by Brian Rosenberger
Like a macabre Christmas morning
the gifts offered
some already unwrapped
skin and fur replacing bow and ribbon
an occasional snake
feathers a possible clue
to the bird still missing
and of course, mice
or just a leg or tail
part and parts of the puzzle
anatomy lessons all
No scream from my wife
when she found the rodent
much too large for a mouse
She had experience playing
priest and gravedigger
to the victims too slow
to escape our cats’ claws
Our neighbors recently
complained of a rat problem
Our four feline mouseketeers
Lux, Pez (the ablest hunter), Bosch,
and Quatro, the newest member of the hunting party
all lovable cats with distinct personalities
all born killers
We were used to it
comedy and tragedy
on nature’s stage played out
in the basement, the kitchen, the living room,
sometime right outside the window
now a dead baby rat in the bedroom
When we found the nursery empty
the crib impossibly big and vacant
a landscape of toys and madness
I imagined animal holidays
tormented then and now
by thoughts of gifts, taken and received
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