Trick-and-Treating

Such dear, innocent little naifs
they are. How are they to know
that they are in store for a treatment
not a treat? After all, the inflection
my voice used was one that invites
them to share in treats, an irresistible
invitation geared to promote instant
compliance. The compulsion simply
overwhelmed at sight of their slight
untidy frames, to once again take up
my grooming shears to impose
the order of conformation and
tidiness on those mites. To struggle
is but to invoke irritation and sternly
they are ordered to 'behave', and
anxious as always to please, they do.
One done, then the other, tiny
scissors around their minuscule
paws-and-pads, tiny blunt scissors
for inside their ears, and a graduation
from medium-to-large for their
shanks, their backs, until they are
done, sleek, no longer dishevelled
and prepared for their reward, the
treat that has been too long withheld.