You Killed That Mouse

a dead mouse on the sidewalk
outside of a blue house
and a white house
and a brown house
and a green house with a red door
provides all the more motivation
for the voices whispering
in the back-left corner
of my cranium

you killed that mouse, they say

i didn't kill the mouse. they know that
and yet they bother me
prod me with incessant hissing
you killed the mouse
its fur is soggy
because maybe it rained a few hours ago
i don't know, i was inside
its little pink tail isn't even in one piece

You killed that mouse

there's a little splash of blood
on its scrawny chest
where the gray fur and the white fur blend
but apart from that
it looks like it went to sleep
out here on the sidewalk
and then got very, very stiff

You Killed That Mouse.

i did not kill the mouse, i instate
even though i cannot turn full circle
to face them
because they are behind me
the mouse died
and i do not know why
but it was not my fault.

You killed that mouse.

it's just a mouse
and it should not bother me
they die all the fucking time
i fed them to snakes
when i was younger
dead things never bother me
but i did not kill the mouse
and no one seems to realize that
you killed the mouse, you killed the mouse, you killed the mouse
its teeth are smaller than my pinky toenails
little whiskers soggy and drooping
pink nose
eyes half-open
half-closed
my breath keeps catching
as if this matters to me
a dead mouse on the sidewalk
a blue-white-brown-green house
a day or two full of fire,
stamped now by the elephantine feet of mistakes
tiny scars that rip open
at inopportune moments
tiny, tiny things
yet all of it matters

YOU KILLED THAT MOUSE.

a tomcat sits licking his paws
on a common sidewalk corner
orange striped
big gold eyes
a veritable tiger's worth of mystery
and yet
between one swath of grass and the next
pinned to the gravelly concrete
by hard bright sunbeams
and a blue-blue sky
sprawled without care in endless lack of life
i killed that mouse.