When you sleep in the midst of rats
a night so beautifully started
can be un-night,
then you keep sleepwalking
on rat tracks,
the feces forming slippery pads.
Rats are very moveable people.
They sleep very little at night.
Rats don’t sleep at night.
And it happens to you
that the man next door
escaped the war of rats
when he took sleeping pills
and woke up in his silent coffin,
chewing away at his own lips,
crying out blood.
Life cleans up the world that way.
But why do men keep rats
in their inner rooms?
And you hear the voice reply:
It is a rat world.
You only live to keep them out
or on the way.
They like human flesh.
They are carnivores,
always busy sharpening
their claws and incisors.
a night so beautifully started
can be un-night,
then you keep sleepwalking
on rat tracks,
the feces forming slippery pads.
Rats are very moveable people.
They sleep very little at night.
Rats don’t sleep at night.
And it happens to you
that the man next door
escaped the war of rats
when he took sleeping pills
and woke up in his silent coffin,
chewing away at his own lips,
crying out blood.
Life cleans up the world that way.
But why do men keep rats
in their inner rooms?
And you hear the voice reply:
It is a rat world.
You only live to keep them out
or on the way.
They like human flesh.
They are carnivores,
always busy sharpening
their claws and incisors.
Published 2015. Ejiọfọr Ugwu is a Nigerian (Igbo) poet who writes in English. In rats the animal "kingdom" takes its revenge. (I have to say though that the tame rats I've handled have been very friendly.)
No comments:
Post a Comment