Nursery Rhyme
I.
A sign that reads “FOR RENT” has just gone up
At the entrance of the home inside the house.
The cat drags each claw clean through her teeth.
She has just devoured the head of a brown dormouse.
II.
The child observes the body of the cat he has killed.
It lies as motionless, as wooden, as a 2×4.
He took it by the tail with both his hands
And battered its skull against the parquet floor.
III.
In a kitchen where the sun makes rainbows on the floor,
A woman stands surrounded by a cloud of glass.
Her body, clad in black, is the tall smoke column
Of an Icelandic volcano towering to ash.
IV.
Have you bitten the running mouse?
Have you beaten the mousing cat?
Have you broken the drinking cup?
Daddy will have something to say about that.