Rat-Hounds Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

The tunnel was so dark
it scared the rats that roamed.
They went in packs to re-assure
themselves and hold each other's hands.
At times they stood quite still
to hover in their stench,
they knew no other and it was protection
against a world of creatures blessed by God.
There wasn't one that would have ventured
into the bowels of this star- and moonstruck city.
All took their chances where the living congregated,
but, there was one, who had by reason of a fault,
anencephalic would describe this thing quite well,
it was a hound of such disgusting, sickly features,
that there was not a bit of rationality.
It had some less endearing, frankly puerile habits
and spent its time with either sniffing or shitting,
one hundred sores were open, draining greenish pus
and there were flames of rotting flesh in gaseous form,
like helpless billows coming out a toothless snout.
Having no brain but only remnants of its tissue,
it did permit some basic, primitive emotion,
there was the loneliness and longing for companions,
though not one self-respecting dog would know this hound.

Then, when it snowed he crowded into sewer pipes
to look for food and seek some shelter for himself,
he came upon, because he stumbled in the dark,
a group of sewer rats who stood quite still and stared.
They found their body language utterly the same,
compatibility was what brought them together.
He did not notice their bad stench or their appearance
but then, he was, himself a sight for vermin eyes.

And for a few short years these slimeballs did their oozing,
unloaded foulness of secretions everywhere,
and when the Gods look down in to the world of crap
they always marvel at the absence of all flies.
There are no moths and no mosquitos and no bugs,
the simple reason is that they have self-respect.
Would it surprise you if the Gods had crossed them off
as quite unworthy of concern and recognition,
until they dropp and choke to death in their own vomit
and foul excretions, even shocking evil spirits.
They have no choice, this pack of rats and that Poo-Hound
but roam in places where no decency exists.