Day 49 - Rat Watchin'

Ok, so this entry is mostly going to be about watching the rats run across the top rail of my back fence (along with the other critters, like possums, skunks and the occasional raccoon). I know this blog is supposed to be about my novel progress, and I was going to write about that, but there's nothing really interesting enough to blog about at this moment so you get rat poetry instead. That said, here is the quick novel update: I got my manuscript back yesterday from my editor--I'm very happy to get cracking on that--and I got a call from Createspace again wanting to know if I am ready yet, which obviously I am not. So, that's the book update, minus a cussing rant about how much of a pain in the ass trying to do my own website is proving to be. If you want to laugh at my ineptitude, feel free to go look at it and enjoy the train wreck I have made out of my theme. (http://www.daultonbooks.com/). (sigh). All good things in time, they say.

So, that said, and without further adieu, here is my new, illustrated poem, "Rat Watchin."



Evening in my back yard

Rat Watchin’

By John Daulton

Staged upon the top most rail

Of my gap-toothed backyard fence

Runs a rodent play we love to watch

Each night it does commence.

The backdrop hangs a sky of gray

Above distant city lights

The glow of them behind it all

Blacks silhouettes just right.

Each character makes its entrance

Dark shapes and nothing more

A furtive wave of rats that run

From offstage to next door.



The players enter

Little nimble Romeos

With pointy noses sniff the air

Rat Hamlets do soliloquies

Speaking silently of despair.

"To be or not to be ..."

On the Broadway of our back yard

While the ghost of Willy Loman

Eats the garbage we discard.

I’ve seen those little hunchbacks

Running the fence line now for years

A Street Car Named Desire

Done with whiskers, claws and ears.

But soft, what light through yonder city breaks?
It is the west and Juliette is a rat...


My wife and I, we sit there

and gaze upon the show

While the rodents keep performing

As if they didn’t know.



It’s like they have no worries

No care, we’ll think they suck

They fear nothing of our criticism

Although they watch for LeRoy’s truck.

For LeRoy does our pest control

And the ensemble he could kill

Only we, the audience

Know if he won’t or if he will.



LeRoy



So caper, prance and pirouette

Rat Macbeths and Gertrude queens

To keep your thespian freedoms

Make this the best we’ve ever seen.

Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed the poem. I'll be back in a few days with a real update on my progress. Oh, and if you live in the greater Sacramento area and need some pest control, LeRoy (Outback Pest Control) is seriously the most awesome pest control guy you will ever get. He is courteous, thorough, uses all the right chemicals so the bugs die and your cats don't, AND, he puts up with stupidity like us not letting him kill the snakes and pigeons and other crap that we are too soft and bleeding-heart to want dead. Yet. LOL. One too many actors up on that stage and the Globe is going down, if you know what I'm saying.