Letter to a Mouse

 
Sadly, we found your poor desiccated body 

and gave it a pause of mourning for one so small 

and so determined to survive. Winter can be 

cold and harsh for nature's creatures and we 

understand why you chose our house

warm and dry as an escape from the misery 

of ice and wind. The wild bird seed and peanuts 

we kept in our basement secure from leakage 

but for those times they were scattered outdoors 

for our wild neighbours were inaccessible to you. 

So sorry. Today I discovered where you hid 

in a little-used storage cupboard for linens out 

of season. And there was all the evidence of 

your so desperate trials in survival dotted 

throughout the folds of linen. In the cupboard. 

a useless cache of chewed fabric. Everything has

been washed and the cupboard restored to 

pristine condition, but the memory of its temporary 

housing of a tiny creature remains intact. In 

a way you were fortunate that our aggressive little

dog chose never to venture to the basement.

Its reticence allowed you the solitude that was

your life in escape from nature's elements.