Surprised by an owl
 
on the night before Christmas,
 
a mouse becomes prey.

 
 
 

In an old clay pot
 
a mouse shelters all night long—
 
the owl goes hungry.

 
 
 

In another life
 
perhaps I was a field mouse
 
hiding from a hawk.

 
 
 

Moonlight serenade—
 
an owl swoops down from the oak
 
to embrace a mouse.

 
 
 

In the melon field
 
a mouse nibbles one choice fruit:
 
sweet and warm and fat.

 
 
 

Near a patch of woods
 
a rusting Buick Skylark
 
cradles a mouse nest.

 
 
 

The homeless woman,
 
shifting in her cardboard box,
 
startles a field mouse.

Shelter

 
 
 

The year’s second day—
 
in a castoff running shoe
 
a mouse takes shelter.

 
 
 

Halloween cloudburst—
 
a field mouse burrows down deep
 
in the dead man’s shoe.

Nest

 
 
 

A field mouse mother
 
unravels my old sweater
 
to line her new nest.