Poems of the Week

Hide and Squeak

by Steven Urquhart Bell

“Trained rats to help rescue earthquake survivors”
Daily News

If caught in an earthquake or other disaster
And trapped under roof beams and rubble and plaster,
My hopes of a rescue might rest with a rat—
I don’t know how happy I’d be about that.

A rat can be trained in a very few days
To creep through debris like it’s threading a maze,
And go where dogs can’t, which is all fine and dandy—
But how would it carry a barrel of brandy?