Frustrations

Thoughts run like mice
in the pantry and if I
catch one the trap squeezes out
eyes and dung. I save the bait
and throw away the body—what use
is a dead thought to a man
whose house won’t keep out
mice that aren’t thoughts
and whose head can’t keep in
thoughts that aren’t mice?

Original Citation

Virginia Quarterly Review 46 (Autumn 1970) 594.

Word Count
55
Original Publication
Virginia Quarterly Review
Date Published
1970
Book Appearance
Shaken By Leaf-fall
Snake in the Strawberries
Complete Poems
229
Theme(s)
memory
animals
First Line
Thoughts run like mice
Poetic Form
open
Bibliographic Notes

listed as Frustrations in Shaken by Leaf Fall and Snake in the Strawberries, but catalogued as Frustration in the Complete Works (should find out what it was in Virginia Quarterly)