RODENTS AND OTHER LIES

On illness: No1

there’s a rat in my bedroom! 
i swear he chewed the phone line.
he said it kept me awake - 
the buzzing and ringing all the time. 

i think he’s trying to kill me!
scratching with little rat claws 
i woke up bleeding and crying
hearing his little rat keys in my supposedly anti-rat doors. 

i promise, he poisoned me yesterday!
and no i didn’t see - 
but when the pain hit me
i know i heard him breathe.

it doesn’t matter I’ve not met him! 
or that he doesn’t know my name
i’m just too young to feel like this, 
so he must be to blame. 

and i know the rat has lived here!
much longer than i thought 
it’s you who let him build his home 
using ribs and muscle, instead of wall. 

you know i’d swallow poison! 
and never once complain 
just clean away the pawprints
before they set and stain.

but then you hold my hand 
and tell me i am safe 
pest control came last night 
and said the problem was my brain!