seems like every winter the outside
chills a mouse inside and then there
you are: historical diseases and
funny viruses from Arizona: last
winter we thought we’d missed a
visitor, when my wife pulled up a
couch cushion, and there was a clutch
of nuts—walnuts (how his mouth
got around those who knows), pecans
and stuff off the breakfast table:
got him: last night as I relished
sitcoms, I noticed a flashback, a
mouse had appeared at a corner and
flashed away: so I searched up the
traps and cheese, and this morning
there he lay belly up with the trap
on top: he had got the wire not
across the head or neck but across
the middle and had probably leaped
and tossed some, clacking the trap
a foot or two away from center before
he lost the case: just when he
thought he had it made: when is
it ever more than a passing thought
in this life: I affirm nothing except
that I affirm nothing: just give me
breezes in the treezes and let wisdom
out the door: where I came from it
wouldn’t be smart to talk about art:
talk about sawing logs or getting
the swamp hogs up or worming tobacco
or gutting ditches would be a lot
safer: when in Rome: don’t try to
get the Romans to do what you do: