Chaetodipus eremicus
Chihuahuan desert pocket mouse
Alice Wallace
I wonder if we have met or was it a dream
you scampering across my brow
as I slept beneath the stars on the desert
floor among the creosote and mesquite.
Would you tell me of your nocturnal foraging
how you brush away the dirt with your tiny front
paws leap and hop with kangarooish back feet
you are related to the kangaroo rat after all.
Would you tell me of being more closely related
to beavers and gophers than mice - who would believe
such a thing - you being so small and un-destructive
with tiny burrows and silent scavenging.
Would you tell me how you have no need of water
and would you be surprised with my need
do you even know of the magic inside of you
creating the sustenance all living creatures require.
Your name speaks of the pouches you have on either
side of your mouth with which you carry your cache
place to place and not of the image I have of you nestled
quietly in the corner of my shirt pocket.
~~~~~
A long time desert dweller, Alice Wallace is a collector of small rocks and metaphors, a traveler of mountain trails and liminal spaces, a grandmother, a poet, a warrior.