A Mouse Tale

One upon a time
in a little country church near a
very very old cemetery,
a city mouse named Eduard
came to visit his cousins, Max and Sheila,

It was nightfall upon his arriving,
and stars were shining
crisp and cold on his little
brown head
curling in his long thick tail
close to his little brown mousiness
Eduard righted
his halo,

they chattered away
the rest of a long long evening

as cousins usually do, speaking of
things they got away with and things
they got caught with, as all little
mice are apt to,

the sound of micely giggles
echoed through the old grey stone
country house of God,

and the dawn breaks, no earlier,
no later than it usally does,
on a Christmas morning
in the company of all God's creatures,
great and small.