Issue Thirty-One - Winter 2018

Nesting

By Sarah Carleton

The mouse in our house is a rat,
lugging stale pita across the floor
like a shield,

slipping inside the stove
all scramble and scratch,
ignoring our Havahart trap.

She’s a cookie-crumb snatcher,
a crack-of-dawn raider,
a mad-rodent hausfrau,

a twisted bedmaker who
turns art to confetti
and scatters scat in fabric,

that shred-happy
ghost of nested futures
sent to gnaw our drywall to dust.

Copyright 2018 Carleton

Sarah Carleton writes poetry, edits fiction, tutors English, plays the banjo, and makes her husband laugh in Tampa, Florida. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Cider Press Review, Nimrod, Chattahoochee Review, Tar River Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, and New Ohio Review. Her first collection, Notes from the Girl Cave, was recently published by Kelsay Books.

All work by