…
Hope is not the thing with feathers
That comes home to roost
When you need it most.
Hope is an ugly thing
With teeth and claws and
Patchy fur that’s seen some shit.
It’s what thrives in the discards
And survives in the ugliest parts of our world,
Able to find a way to go on
When nothing else can even find a way in.
It’s the gritty, nasty little carrier of such
diseases as
optimism, persistence,
Perseverance and joy,
Transmissible as it drags its tail across
your path
and
bites you in the ass.
Hope is not some delicate, beautiful bird,
Emily.
It’s a lowly little sewer rat
That snorts pesticides like they were
Lines of coke and still
Shows up on time to work the next day
Looking no worse for wear.
“Hope is not a bird, Emily, it’s a sewer rat” by Caitlin Seida
I am not kidding. I really saw a rat on the roof of our gazebo. It didn’t happen yesterday, but recently enough. “Honey, come here, quick.” My husband stood at our glass door, he pointed to the top of our gazebo. “Is this a rat?” He is such a city boy sometimes.
“Yep, that’s a rat.” And off (online) I went and ordered rat traps, the ones that kill a rodent instantly. Heavy black teeth come down on the poor creature. It most likely breaks its neck. No suffering, like on these sticky tapes.
We caught it, ever since the traps have stayed empty. A loner rat? I thought they live in packs or colonies. Well, this one didn’t.
Why am I telling you this? Because rats are ugly.
Hope can be ugly too.
Just like the rat, it sits and shows itself and then…often nothing.
Maybe I need to buy traps to catch hope when it shows its ugly face again.
A hope trap? If it’s not invented yet, I insist someone gets this done.
Enough hope already.
(PS. If you, Miss Emily Dickinson somewhere, somehow can read this, which would really floor me, I just want you to know, I love your poem “Hope is the thing with feathers”. To be honest I now like both versions. I blame it on the rat. It shouldn’t have shown up.)
I have always loved that Emily Dickinson poem, but this is good too. Rats… only seen one at my grandparents house that sat on an acre of land and had lots of outbuildings and piles of windows and wood as my grandfather did repair business. And I would be perfectly happy if that is the only one I ever see. We get lots of mice the cats like to play with though.
Peter is correct. We are never more than 6′ or 10′ away from a rat, if you think about the sewer underneath our homes, the yards, the gardens, the sheds and all the brushes and bushes were they can hide (and they do).
As long as they stay hidden, 6′ to 10′ is ok with me.
Wonderful post!!
Thank you, Lisa. I am so glad you liked it.
I have a rat story. I had never seen one before I was visiting my sister at her home in Columbus GA. Out in her garage she had killed many rats. I didn’t know she had it in her, but she was daily emptying rat traps of dead rats. So we were going to somewhere to pick up some building supplies for a project she was doing, and we went out into the garage to get into her truck. There was a rat on her workbench. It was HUGE. She said it would likely be caught in a trap, and we left. When we got to the parking lot of the big box store and began to leave the truck we realized there was a rat hanging on between the bed of the truck and the cab. We saw it through the back window of the truck. We were freaked out. We parked way out at the end of the parking lot so that it wouldn’t be near other cars and we ran as fast as we could away from the truck When we came back to the truck it was gone. And back at the garage the other one was dead. She eventually moved.
Yikes, that would freak me out. I would have run too. Peter, is spot on. Rats live closer to us then we normally realize. I think we all can kill the animals we fear and the animals we eat (when it comes down to survival).
Amazing poem you found, Bridget. We need that hope trap!
Speaking of sightings, it’s not long since one scurried across the path in front of me. Did I jump! xx
I am glad you liked the poem. I think we all jump when we a rat is too close and when it shows itself unexpectedly.
I loved this. I think you’re right but Emily is too:)
I am glad you liked it. Thank you for commenting.
Apparently, the old saying that you’re never more than six feet from a rat is a myth; it can be 10 to 15 feet! Just sayin’.
It’s not a myth. No matter if you live on a farm or in a city, rats are near…always (the two-legged too).