Robert Plath

THE OGRE'S WIFE

my mother
always called
for my father
when a mouse
still squeaking
was stuck
to a glue paper
trap beneath
the kitchen sink
& she’d turn
her back & say,
i can’t watch
as he balled up
the amber trap
mouse & all
squeezing it
in his big meaty
fist & growling,
another no good
fucking pest
& tossed it
in the garbage
as we sat hiding
in our cold cells
on busted box
springs


Gerald So reads "The Ogre's Wife":



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Rob confesses: "This poem was inspired by these sticky traps my father set for mice. He really did crush them and throw them out while they were alive. Once when he wasn’t around I heard one under the sink squeaking and it was stuck, so i took scissors and cut around his feet. After an hour he was free and ran away with these tiny shoes on. And of course I relate to the mice while growing up in that house."

ROBERT PLATH is a 50-year-old poet from New York. He has over a dozen books out. He is most known for his collection A Bellyful of Anarchy (Epic Rites Press). He lives alone with his cat and stays out of trouble. See more of his work at www.robplath.com.