Almanac Poetry: Rat Sonnet

 

The Black Rat (Rattus rattus). [Wikimedia Commons.]

 

Rat Sonnet

 

There
they
scuttle,

 

along
the
fencetop,

 

descended
from
the tree,

 

pink and white flowers
delicately
between
yellow
teeth.

 

 

(Acknowledgement: poem previously published in Sudo journal, 2022.)

 

 

 

Read more from Kevin Densley HERE

 

 

Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, is available HERE

 

 

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About

Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, which was published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.

Comments

  1. Jane Greenwood says

    Oooh, thanks for this! I love that you’ve made a romantic hero of the rat, with a flower rakishly in his yellow teeth. And that’s a great take on sonnet form – a way to compress an already short form!

  2. Kevin Densley says

    Thanks for your comments, Jane. Much appreciated.

    It may interest you to know that ‘Rat Sonnet’ was based very closely on a series of actual events at a mate’s place many years ago – quite often, I’d have a beer with this friend on his front verandah, and we’d watch some resident rats scuttling along the top of his side fence in the circumstances described by the poem.

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