Rustle!

Cherry

By Rhiannonw

Fri, 27 Dec 2024
  • 260 reads
12 comments
 

I heard a rustle in a drawer
puzzled, opened it – and saw
two bright round eyes
beady brown – Shriek! surprise!
When help arrived the mouse had gone –
out of the drawer’s back and then along
behind some cupboard, then under the floor?
A nibbled hot water bottle
in a lower drawer –
we had to use a trap,
didn’t want a roving mouse
wandering, gnawing in our house!

Another time, another house,
we found a soap bar with mouse
claw and bite marks.
Kitchen soap’s not meant for mice:
we didn’t think it very nice
that at night a mouse gnaws, stands
on what’s meant for washing hands!

[IP: – not the one just posted: Unexpected Visitor/s ]

 

Certificate U
Poem
Families
Humour
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Another great IP response Rhiannon. As I've had cats most of my life, my houses have always been happily mouse free, except for the odd 'gift' brought in by cats - and one of the gifts hid in the back of my dishwasher and ate the wiring which destroyed the dishwasher. A very expensive revenge!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Oh, dear! When family lived in our annexe, they got a kitten. But these incidents occurred when we didn't have cats. Actually that kitten used to bring gifts and deposit them outside our french door. Nowadays, he seems to have stopped doing that. Your dishwasher incident reminded me of a big repair on a washing machine which turned out that the seal had been pierced by 2 pins in the little RSPB bird badges I'd been collecting and like wearing in rotation! Hadn't checked before putting tops in the machine! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

A trap or poison is terribly cruel. Get a cat. If a cat moves in the mice move out.

Good! Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you for the cherries. These 2 IP poems were simmering during the week, but needed polishing! Rh

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

I can't help admiring the beautiful little things but they multiply so quickly and can cause a lot of damage. I remeber finding dozens of seeds deposited inside a box of Biotex washing powder when we had mice under the sink. Delightful poem, Rhiannon.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Jane. Lovely to see outside, but gnawing away in the house doesn't seem a good idea, and not the best for them. Not even finding food! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Absolutely Love the rhymes and rhythm in this one! I remember as a child, when Mum thought the washing machine was damaging her tea towels, JUST the tea towels, very mysterious. Then realised it was not the washing machine that was making the holes, but their own tea towel drawer - there was a cosy mouse's nest at the back! Like with that soap, in your wonderful poem, sort of cute, but also HORRIBLE that a mouse had been living on cloth used for drying cutlery etc. Wonder if the mouse, safely back outside in the bank where the cat had (we hoped) caught it from in the first place, remembered about the time living in the kitchen

Please would you consider reading this one, if there is a reading event in the New year?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Di, and maybe! There have been a number of funny mouse stories down the years, but we haven't had long times of difficulties, just seemed to be field mice taking a liking occasionally to a nightly visit! I can imagine your Mum's feelings on finding that nest!

warm regards, Rhiannon

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I thought your mouse experience was narrated very well in this poem Rhiannon. It reminded me of the mouse we had in mine and my husbands first house, that lived behind the skirting board in our dining room, We were always aware of it when we were eating our meals, like it was watching us.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

That must have been a funny experience, Jenny. I think my parents had a story about a mouse chewing some music in the music stool, and later they thought it ran inside the piano and caused some notes to sound … !! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by marandina on

"..saw
two bright round eyes
beady brown – Shriek! surprise!"

That's a highly visual tale told with dramatic effect. Skilfully done, Rhiannon.

Unexpected visitors, for sure. Enjoyed this.

Happy New Year to you. Paul

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Paul. It was a vivid memory! I hope you have a happy new year, too. Rhiannon