Drowning A Rat Poem by Raj Dronamraju

My suggestion was to take the trap
And release the rat in a field a couple of miles away
But my mother's mother told me that if you did that, the rat would find its way back
This did not seem based on actual science
But did not care enough about the fate of one rat, the vanguard of invading vermin, to question it

The trap snapped shut when the morsel of food was tugged on
And in the morning we found in the storeroom, an outdoor rat, brown and autumn colored not the sickly grayish black of the city rat

My mother's mother took the hose and filled the tub
She submerged the trap as the rat clung to the mesh at the top of it
Pink nose and buck teeth extended gulping for a last breath

I did not look at the dead drowned rat
But went out for beers later that night with a friend
We talked of wars that might happen and geopolitics
Behind us, the normal Saturday night bar band set up to play
They were led by a husband and wife - The wife sang while the husband played different instruments