I have work to do
Sometime in the night
With a single slash
Or the strike of a match

I soothe the baby in the crib
With a simple lullaby
“The mouse ran up the clock,
The clock struck one,
the mouse was done”

With the grain of the smooth woods
Against my fingers
The mouse runs across my fingers
Claws scratching my skin
And teeth that cut
The mouse runs away again

Sometime in the dark,
A rabbit comes, and lays on my chest
I chose the slash
Then the match
With the work that came in the night
I breath I feel to my right
I look and see my old friend

In the end the fear comes back
But I don’t struggle
He told me to come back
To his home in a river
With a paddle and boat that he uses
My old friend Death,
He’s a kind man