Melissa Lemay is the Poet of the Week for W3 Weekly Prompt #66 and she challenges us to Write a pantoum with at least four stanzas.
Melissa’s prompt guidelines The pantoum consists of a series of 4-line stanzas that rhyme ABAB, in which the second and fourth lines of a stanza recur as the first and third lines in the next stanza; each stanza introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing stanza, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing stanza, rhyming ZAZA.
For this poetry prompt challenge, I thought I’d write about a mouse who is living with us (uninvited). He may look sweet, but he smells awful. Mice like to live in our home, but never one as smelly as Jerry. Despite setting many live (humane) traps to catch the blighter, he remains at large.
The Mouse Trap
The Mouse Trap
Jerry is a mouse that won’t be caught.
He lives in the flower pot of a cactus plant—
(His home is too spiky, I should have thought).
We can’t catch him. We can’t… can’t… can’t!
He lives in the flower pot of a cactus plant.
With well laid traps we lure the mouse.
We can’t catch him. We can’t, can’t, can’t!
(He leaves his crap around the house)
With well laid traps we lure the mouse.
Is he interested in the trap? Not a jot!
(He leaves his crap around the house)
The mouse darts about and squeaks a lot.
Is he interested in the trap? Not a jot!
I am driven crazy by it all.
The mouse darts about and squeaks a lot—
How can I be vexed by one so small?
I am driven crazy by it all.
What is that sound? What is that snap?
How can I be vexed by one so small?
Has the mouse had a mishap?
What is that sound? What is that snap?
Is it the trap? I tear out my hair
Has the mouse had a mishap?
I look in the trap… the mouse isn’t there.
Is it the trap? I tear out my hair—
I want to catch him and set him free.
I look in the trap; the mouse isn’t there
To live in a hole in an old oak tree.
I want to catch him and set him free.
If he goes in the trap I’ll eat my hat!
To live in a hole in an old oak tree—
The thing to do, is to get a cat.
If he goes in the trap I’ll eat my hat.
I let out a scream!
The thing to do is to get a cat…
It’s only a dream.
I let out a scream—
We buy a cat called Tom who’s rather nice.
It’s only a dream—
The tomcat makes friends with mice.
We buy a cat called Tom who’s rather nice.
The cactus plant grows big and strong.
The tomcat makes friends with mice—
Something about this is very wrong.
The cactus plant grows big and strong—
(His home is too spiky, I should have thought).
Something about this is very wrong:
Jerry is a mouse that won’t be caught.
Lesley Scoble, August 2023
Jerry the mouse is caught (but only on camera) out on a sojourn hunting red currants.
The Mouse Trap is my third effort at writing in this fun poetry form. You can read my first pantoum poem, The Sun Abandons London here and my second poem, The Eye of the Kalamatrix here
Thank you Melissa Lemay for your pantoum poetry prompt and my thanks as always to David, The Skeptics Kaddish, W3 Weekly Prompt.
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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