This Trap I Face
by Ariel Douglas (3 November 2018)
I feel like a mouse
In a maze
Surrounded by different paths
Down one, a five foot death fall to the floor
Down another, a hungry cat
Down still another, a pool of poisoned water
Down the last, a piece of cheese
On a spring loaded mousetrap
I’m under a magnifying glass
Prodded, poked, pulled
Tested, tried, toasted
Flipped, flopped, frozen
“I wonder,” says an observer,
“How much more the little mouse can take.”
I’m beginning to wonder the same
The little mouse is alone in the maze
Alone, save for the predator
Nowhere to hide
No one to offer her sanctuary
Everything is being stripped away from her
Freedom
Safety
Friendship
Happiness
The little mouse is frantic
Spinning around looking for an escape
Any escape
But she finds none
There is no one here
No one but the mouse
And her hunter
“Mrow?”
The mouse runs
With nowhere to go and no directions how to get there
She runs
With no hope of making it out alive
She runs
As if she could escape
She runs
For hope of a different ending
She runs
She leaps
Right off the five foot drop
To her death
Or so she thinks