BY GARY CORSERI

1/22/08

You’re a rat in a maze and you can’t get out.
The rats are eating the other rats.
How do you like this luscious rat food?
Gorge your full on the putrid cats.

You’re covered in dung and you smell like piss.
You can’t remember when your dark coat shone.
You’re living in sewers—you know the hiss
Of the pipes of Empire winding down.

They tell you you’re free, they tell you you’re brave.
But you cower in corners afraid of the light.


A wheezy whistle comes out of your mouth.
A thousand whistles in fetid air take flight,

Break the sound barrier, crackling hot.
It’s damp, your bones ache, the boil on your back
Festers, attracts the attention of other rats.
You jump one, break it’s neck in two, eat.

Eat and shit in the dark and damp,
Pray to your Rat God for courage, strength
To live another day in the cellar of the great house
Where they sleep on cushions, oblivious, above.




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