The Uninvited
Article voiceover
Some say bats are rats with wings: I say have you seen some birds? Peripatetics with beady eyes And talons that scratch the asphalt, Plastic peckers search behind my car's front tires; Some look as if they've been rolled over. A gaggle of hermits, the lonely crows Hope for bread crumbs from plastic bags. If hope is a thing for those with feathers, Houseflies fly in rings of despair. They fly yet hardly have wings; Though housed they never have homes. By chance they circle together To housefly dirges unheard and unknown- Whack! A kindred floater blotted out, An ink-stain on what was the milk-white page. When the candles cool from the master's final breath, And sleep descends on all in the house, The mouse appears. His footfalls ring like little knocks, An avalanche of little rocks To the sleeper who knows what he hears. Pale feet perambulate all locks, And ripple the face of fears.