https://padlet.com/toenniessen/2s7c84w4up5zqk7u "Remind them that you, that I, we are worthy of every poem, here." ~ Elizabeth Acefedo en-us 2021-03-01 01:05:46 UTC 2021-03-01 02:11:29 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f400.png toenniessen https://padlet.com/toenniessen/2s7c84w4up5zqk7u/wish/1251165607 "Rat Ode" by Elizabeth Acefedo

Because you are not the admired nightingale
Because you are not the noble doe
Because you are not the picturesque ermine armadillo or bat
They have been written and I don't know their song the way I know your scuttling between walls
The scent of your collapsed corpse rotting beneath floorboards
Your frantic squeal as you pull at your own fur from glue traps
Ripping flesh from skin in an attempt to survive
'Cause in July of '97 
You birthed a legion on 109th
Swarmed from behind the dumpsters
Made our streets infamous
For something other than crack
Shit, we nicknamed you 'Cat Killer'
Raced with you through open hydrants
Squeaked like you when Siete blast aluminum bat into your brethern skull
The sound slapped down dominos
You reigned that summer, rat
And even when they sent exterminators
Half dead, and on fire, 
You pushed on
Because even though you are an inelegant,
Simple mammal,
Bottom-feeder,
Always freakin' famished little ugly thing,
Who feasts on what crumbs fall from the corners of our mouths.
You live uncuddled, uncoddled, can't be bought at Petco and fed to fat snakes.
Because you 
Are not the maze rat of labs: 
Pale, pretty-eyed, trained.
You raise yourself
Sharp fang, claw scarred, patched dark, 
Because of this
He should love you.
"Look at the beast," the poet tells me, 
"The table is already full
And rat, you, 
Are not a write-worthy thing."
Every time they say that
Take your gutter
Your dirt coat
Fill this page, rat,
Scrape your underbelly against street concrete 
You better squeak
And raise the whole world, rat
Let loose a plague of words, rat.
And remind them that you,
that I,
we are worthy of every poem,
here.]]> 2021-03-01 01:18:16 UTC https://padlet.com/toenniessen/2s7c84w4up5zqk7u/wish/1251165607