Cat and Mouse

The standoff drags out
in seconds and hours,
both frozen in amber
of sunset and shadows.
The cat, she's equipped:
she carries in her paws
ten tiny daggers and
ten lethal swords.

The mouse has size
and cunning to hand,
invisibility cloak and
the lie of the land.
A pounce and a cry
and a squeak and a rustle.
Who will win this
life and death tussle?

Suddenly, cat sees air
not a mouse in her paws;
she casts about for
the meal she adores.
Cat's hungry for meat,
the mouse for freedom.
He hides in the border
of his fragrant kingdom.

But cat has a nose
for hiding places
and soon sniffs out
his children's sweet faces.
It'll be a massacre,
cat will eat the lot!
But mouse throws his cloak
and they vanish behind a pot.

Cat mooches home
dragging her paws.
It'll be tinned food today
topped off with prawns.