Sweet Gnawing |

Sweet Gnawing

There is a tiny mouse who sleeps in
a cracked snow globe on my bookshelf

While I train my limbic system
to develop steady infatuations
for cute rodents on the internet

The rapt stoicism of capybaras
floating seamlessly with satsumas
and limes in ofuros and hot springs

The sovereign rascality of otters
slithering in & out ice buckets, fluffing
their pups in a drowsy snuggle

Two chinchillas vying for the title
of the fiercest chonks in an Insta
-gram battle of the roundest beasts

This subtle dopamine apprenticeship
is supposed to erase all other
optics of bloodlust and blue ruin

Furball cavies with heart-
shaped bottoms wriggling
their way through a green maze

The couture red-white fur of a flying
squirrel leaping across hickory
like a miniature superhero

A chubby prairie dog carried out
of a shallow mud ditch while
yelling vehemently at its rescuers

These wheedling critters emerging
from the latin ‘rodere’ & ‘rodo’—I gnaw
an ironic nod to what depression does

to my brain when I switch off
the phone and return to a world
where I too am a designated lab rat