James Pollock

Mousetrap

“’Tis a knavish piece of work, but what o’ that?”
                                                          ~Hamlet

It’s going to snap. But for now, it just kills
time, high-strung, tongue-tied, sitting tight among
floor crumbs. How can it not give you the chills?
A little peanut butter on its tongue.

Whole divisions deployed all over town
assigned to be assassins of the mouse.
The coiled spring that brings the hammer down
has one thing to say: Death is in the house.