Who Taught That Mouse To Write?

After I retired from radio work, between more ambitious projects I determined to write a piece of doggerel about an animal each morning. Here’s the one that provided the collection with a title.

Mouse

What IS that noise behind the wall?

It sounds like something very small.

I hear it sometimes late at night,

And then, when I turn on the light,

There’s nothing there that I can see.

I wonder just what it can be?

I’ll find some cheese and set a trap.

I’ll hear, perhaps, a loud-is SNAP!

And then the noise will stop, I guess.

And mice will number just one less.

Alas, next morning, nothing’s there.

The cheese is gone. The trap is bare.

But there’s a note. The print is clear…

The note is short, and it says “Dear

Provider, thanks so much for lunch.”

I think that it’s a solid hunch

That’s it’s a mouse that I have fed,

And he has left the note I’ve read…

My question, after that strange night,

Is who has taught that mouse to write?

I’ve written 100 of these things. Superb artist Steve Coren has illustrated a bunch of them. If you think the collection would be fun for young kids to read with their parents or grandparents…hey, so do I. So far, publishers of children’s books don’t see it.

Bill Littlefield