Ethnic Cleansing, A Child's Allegory: Part II Segregation

A pale yellow eyebrow
Crept slowly upon
The ebony brim
Of a winter horizon
A wisp of a wind
Like the chill of the cloak
Death swishes afore
The inevitable croak
Blew through the meadow
And flew down the road
But all eyes were closed
In our little abode

Snuggled and snoozing
Were the cat and the man
One underneath, one
Atop the divan
Downstairs a shape filled
The living room sofa
There, legs akimbo,
Lay the dog in a stupor
Mousie retained
His high jurisdiction
Asleep in a straw cloud
A kingdom of fiction

As those comatose
Gloried in delusion
Consciousness tiptoed
Into the illusion
And drew happy dreamers
Away from a world
Where they sat on thrones
And enemies furled
In dungeons below
Gnashing and grinding
Forgotten and damned
Beyond any finding

But then mammal eye-lids
Peeled open with slumber’s
Stickiness clotting
In each iris chamber
A traumatised tabby
Crept from under the bed
And nervously nestled
Atop the bedspread
Listening for guttural
Sounds from below
Alert and afraid
Of its inherent foe

Downstairs in the lounge
A canine was stirring
With legs all a-kilter
Like four sticks of kindling
He flopped from the sofa
Gravity demanding
And smarted his bottom
When he used it for landing
His immediate thought
As he rose to his paws
Was to search out the rooms
For the beast with sharp claws

The little mouse meanwhile
Had risen and taken
The cube of Red Leicester
And smidgeon of bacon
A corner of sausage
Left for his breakfast
But a bowl of spaghetti
If he had been asked
Would have served better
And given him hope
To knit it together
And use as a rope

Entrenched then in sections
Their lives were to be
Parts were off-limits
In the land of the free
The dog ruled the prairies
But always in vain
That he couldn’t adventure
Up to the high plain
Where pussy would sit
Like a cat in a canister
Meowing in hope
From his perch by the banister

Yet this was a continent
To the realm of the mouse
Who bewilderingly questioned
This choice of a house,
No longer perceived, he,
A benevolent host
Just someone to tease him
With biscuits and toast
For goodly intention
Read evil psychosis
To an corpulent rodent
With deep vein thrombosis

The scale of the hardship
Varied, of course
For each individual
Recessed indoors
The larger the three,
The envious doggy,
Was unable to rule
In perpetuity,
Beyond demarcation -
A collapsible chair -
Laid cross the base of the
The twelve little stairs

Despite its chagrin
Of ground level restriction
The garden provided
Some small compensation
Free to loaf in the sun
And to paddle in showers
Snorting the grass
And the trees and the flowers
While pining away
In the bedroom above
The pussy cat yearned
For that Land that he loved

With more inborn spring,
If the cat, so inclined -
Adept in stealth and
Infiltration in mind -
Could traverse No Man’s land
And breach Checkpoint Charlie
Skip past its gaoler
(Who’d attack before parley)
And through open window
Could gratefully lay
In that favourite spot
Denied every day

As long days consisted
Of cat food and sleeping
So emotions transformed
To hatred from weeping
Awaiting the familiar
Footfall on staircase
The cat’s only congress
A brief nightly solace
With the master it worshipped
But with wearing affection
Jealous of the mongrel
Who shared his attention

The latter, too, envious
Of this nightly concourse
Was planning a move
Like a Dog Delta Force
Days he spent gazing
With his master at graft
At the collapsible chair
Blocking his path
A Gazelle he was not
Which put paid to leaping
Neither a monkey
So no banister creeping

Then one afternoon
In the mellowing autumn
This canine encountered
It’s eureka moment
Revealed in a flash
A dream without pause
Itself in the hallway
Broomstick in its jaws
Hooking the brush
Round the backless chair
And pulling it free
To leave clear the stair!

And so he made happen
That marvellous ruse
And gambolled upstairs
A kitty cat to peruse
Who seeing the charge
Of this slavering cur
Performed a high triple
Salchow in the air
As the hound hit the landing
The cat’s only escape
To bound back down the flight
On the slim balustrade

The dog hit the skids
On the polished lumber
Disappeared through a bedroom
But still tried to clamber
And straighten its legs
That were splayed out beneath
His sliding long torso
That flew under the sheet
On the bed of his master
Where he’d longed to lay
Cracking his noggin
Along the way

Dizzy and fuzzy
And whimpering too
He emerged from the mantle
With a head full of glue
That treasure he sought
To nestle down at night
Against his warm master
Was his now by right
But try as he might
To attain heavenly lustre
One small bound for dog
Was too much to muster

The cat had been furtive
Back on hallowed ground
And made for the kitchen
To foil the crazed hound
The table was risky
As the chairs gave ingress
The window sill beckoned
Then the table gave access!
There must be a haven
Somewhere in this place
Where no boldly canine
Can enter its space

There high past the window
Ending its search
Housing only a bowl
A reachable perch!
With just enough room
Oh bliss, ecstasy
Impossible for Fido
But a small jump for me
And in four careful hops
Its bottom secure
It sat down in safety
Contented, demure

Yet danger had ebbed
From the unsteadied dog
Who lay in a bundle
Its senses agog
No more kitty baiting
Just one long furlough
You can’t chase a puss-puss
With acute vertigo
But the cat unawares
Remained in sojourn
Watching the door
For the dog to return

As the afternoon lengthened
Like a man on the rack
So the stricture of fear
In the cat, soon relaxed
And returned as it would
Its implicit trademark
So dread was supplanted
By curiosity’s spark
What was that strange house
On the wall over there?
And who was that creeping
Around in its lair?

There out of the straw
Its dissolute cot
A brown head and pink nose
Appeared in a shot
Awakened from slumber
By barking and yelps
And screeching that quivered
Its bones to a pulp
It peered around charily
Wretched and scared
Was the end of the world nigh?
It hadn’t prepared

For Mousey, the conflict
Betwixt Canine and Foe,
Was usually a woof
Then a wretched meow
Heard in the distance
Not focal nor frightening
A rumour of thunder
Deficient of lightning
Without any ken
Of this alien tongue
The occasional screeching
Became monotone

Although out of the front line
And unscarred in battle
The mouse, notwithstanding.
Had his sabre to rattle
Classed collateral damage
With no NATO on call
Just a glimpse of the host
As he paced in the hall
With his time so consumed
Mice meals became brief
As he patrolled a safe zone
To prevent feline grief

But those pangs of starvation
A dearth cement mixer
That churned round on empty
With no victual elixir
Were to pale in significance
Like that great ghastly steed
Whose hooves never sound
Whose veins never bleed
As its animal form
Clenched a stiletto claw
Arched its back, flicked its tail
And made ready to soar

As it gazed on the chasm
Below it must breach
Its whiskers were twitchy
Its paws practised reach
But as harebrained a leap
We would think, you or I
The engine of rage
Compelled Pussy to fly
And so like a Leopard
It prepared the offence
Unleashing its spring
A Blitzkrieg commenced

Up through the Rubicon
The flight path was fine
The speed through the arch
Had adhered to design
But on the descent
Toward target below
Its aerial swoop felt
Perceptibly slow
A desperate cat then
To shun a huge thump
Began cycling its legs
In a doomed triple jump

The miserable rodent
Meanwhile, in its den,
Had calmed itself down
After Armageddon
Then a lengthening shade
Loomed across its billet
Was it evening already?
Is he here with a fillet?
As it gratefully smiled
At the darkening sky
No host did he see
Just an enormous fly!

The hand it expected
Was not graced with grub
But hairy and short
And armed to the nub
As it swept from above
The mouse huddled in dread
Destined, it thought
To become brown sliced bread
But the weapon fell short
Yet fastened upon
The edge of the shelf
From where the cat wildly swung

Frozen in straw
And unable to move
Its gaze from the scimitars
Dug in the wood
Praying that weight
Would drag down the claw
And mouse would be spared
Instead then it saw
The other arising
Scraping for leverage
Would mousy blood soon
Become pussy beverage?

Survival they say
Breeds inspiration
And quickening wit
To resolve altercation
So fear evoked idea
That clutching a straw
Held between molar
With intent then to floor
The cat back to earth
With a waft and a tickle
And loosen the grip
Of those dangerous sickles

So the brave mouse strode forth
Like a knight on a steed
His jousting stick, teeth held,
A slender white reed
And thrusting it through
The bars of his cage
Waggled the straw
To cause the cat umbrage
The tease did the trick
And the itch took a bite
But as kitty fell back
It took a last swipe

Like a Peckinpah shoot-out
This scenario
As the cat and the mouse cage
Plunged earth bound in slow-mo
The pussy bounced twice
And twisted in pain
The cage hit the oven
And recoiled again
Clattering the kitty
Against the far wall
An improvised strike
With a steel bowling ball

Yet the triumphant mouse
Though not physically hurt
Was in no state at all
To tug Victory’s shirt
Bounced all asunder
With mouse parts quite raw
It survived the great fall
Cosseted by straw
Unaware that his house
Had disabled the foe
It quivered in terror
Awaiting a blow

Then the front door swung wide
Like an old saloon gate
And the resident entered
To witness this state
Ahead teary eyes from
The most miserable stare
Of a pitiable canine
Atop of the stairs
To his right in the kitchen
Lay the pussy skew-whiff
Giving angst to the man
That the cat was a stiff

And there was the cage
Gnarled out of shape
And within shaking madly
A rodent earthquake
He eased back the gate
And reached to console
The scared furry thing
That just saw a shadow
Encroaching its space
That turned to attack
Convinced that the paw
Was appended to cat

Empires will rise
And empires will fall
Our little empire
No different at all
One dizzy dog
One twisted Kitty
A traumatised mouse
One Walter Mitty
With his eyes to the moon
Good intentions awry
He vowed to the stars
He will find a way