Small Vagaries


Are we men or mice?
Someone asked a while ago
Did anyone give an answer?
I don't remember
Let's try and give one anyway
Are we men?
What are men? What are mice?
Both men and mice eat rice
There is a ceiling fresco
Done by Michelangelo
Where in the clouds of heaven
God looks at the Man
Made in his image
As a young art student
With all the ambiguities
Of mood and purpose
Whose favourite pastimes
Are poetry and sport
With an unsatiable desire
For self improvement
In modern parlance, a dude			21

God made mice a tiny thing
And filled it with loathing
He gave them buck teeth
With which to nibble
At the crumbs that flake
Off the condominial world
Of the human species
He sends them to those places
Where poor workmanship
Leaves holes and gaps giving
Access to those craggy caverns
A haven from the daily fears
Of unforeseen terrors
Out of sight, out of mind
A mouse appearing from nowhere
Frightens the daylights
Out of the most smug comforts
The amateur executioners
Load cheese on a cruel device
The mouse does as expected
In this small allegory of despair		42

Bevagna, 8 2 2008