Sunlight and Shadows

The Rat Killers

A couple once lived in a house.

(My tale is very sad.)

They set the traps for roach and mouse,

but rats—that made them mad!

Once, barefoot in the bathroom,

this old man saw a rat,

“Old Woman, go and get the broom!”

he cried from where he sat.

“We’ll get this creature, Wife,” he said.

He used the broom to strike it.

The rat leaped right into the tub

because he didn’t like it.

“I’ve got you now,” the old man cried,

and struck a mighty blow.

The rat leaped out onto the floor,

and with a startled, “Oh!”

The man, himself, leaped in the tub

with both bare feet in motion.

He watched the rat from where he stood,

and had another notion.

“Wife, I will chase the rat your way;

you hit him with the door

and, if not dead, he’ll surely fall

unconscious on the floor.”

He chased the rat out through the door.

(But sometimes good plans fail.)

Her timing was a second off;

the door slammed on his tail.

The rat was trapped outside the room,

the man was trapped within.

”You kill him, Wife, he’s on your side!”

(She couldn’t see his grin.)

I do not like this plan, she thought;

the rat thought, nor do I.

“I think I’d rather hit the man,”

she muttered, with a sigh.

She got her iron skillet out

and hit the hairy head.

“You can come out now, Husband.

The rat is dead,” she said.