WHAT"S IT?

WHAT’S IT has tiny needle teeth
In a mouse’s face
With whiskers and all.
Can fly upside down without a stall.
No real tail, but fleshy wings.
Unlike a bird, doesn’t morning sing.
Hangs upside down out of the light
Friendly guest, though up all night.
Zaps mosquitoes and insect pests
In the dark, sees by hearing best.
Flies through the dark like a dart
This clever animal is known to sometimes bark.
Are you smart?
Without seeing it in the light, ...Can you name this mammal of the night?

Krogar and Klaus, and the House Mouse Mystery
Hunkered down, very uncalm,
Side by side, just before dawn,
Cat by Cat, confide, but stir little.

“Where’s that.. WHAT’S IT?”
tooth’ed jaws with spittle.

Whiskers a’twitch, tails a’switch,
Two cats purr, grouse and protest,

“How shall we get at that.. WHAT’S IT?”

Upon the fireplace screen, out claws,
Topsy-turvy cats crash into brick wall
Topple andirons, ash, and kindling--
Crazed cats, Krogar and Klaus, go a’ spindling.
Leap from hearth askew and a‘yaw,

“There, ..No there!!!!!” confused Cats babble.

Agile kitties flip, twist then scrabble,
In the dark hall, brave kitties fall,
Land gracefully upon padded paws.

That's the fastest house mouse either ever saw.

WHAT’S IT jumps from mantle
circles the room,
Finds a dark shadow just behind the broom
Waits there while cats’ re-group

"WHAT'S IT?" stopping to groom--then
jump on the table, and knock off fruit.
Banana, pear, apple, orange meteors fall

So, WHAT’S IT under couch crawls.
Cat chases resume, to the guest bedroom.
In a flash the bed is disheveled, when zoom,
WHAT’S IT flies up to safety of a dark lampshade.

WHAT’S IT hangs upside down, unabashily’ed,
Pausing to see kitties’ looks of bad luck that day
Licking their paws, their last trick is played.

“WHAT’S IT can fly,” Krogar to Klaus, says in dismay.
And with the dawn, the light inter-plays.

Up to the shadowy attic, in a graceful jet,
Flies WHAT’S IT easily
with only a silent silent shiver.
Through the eaves, spies the Cats now so upset,
dejected Krogar and Klaus, lick their paws, and
can’t even digest their liver.

Today, though, there are no regrets:
Krogar and Klaus tell their neighboring pets,
“You may visit our house, with behavior best;

“Pleeze, Do not disturb our house mouse: “ ‘WHAT’S IT’,

"the most unusual, honored, flying houseguest.”

A poem written for me and first daughter, Panther Paws. by Robert “Bob” Parker,
of Halifax, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, he has passed away. He lived his
retirement years on Monpossett Pond in a little converted boathouse, that he
shared with several animals, pets and otherwise. Bob would wake up early before
his wife, stoke the wood burning stove, in the morning before dawn, and type on
his Corona manual, and this is one he chronicled one morning. PD