Rat breeders gather
to primp and parade their best--this chinchilla rat,
silks, the Moluccan Cream Belly--at this dog show
for mice and rats where, if entered a cat,
there would be no crowning
this year of: Rat of the Year, Mouse of the Decade.
The judge cradles a quaking contestant in her palm.
Reputations made or broken, breeding secrets, build
a better cancer rat and your pride can turn into cash, pack
another gram of fat
on the thighs of a mouse
and this news shivers up and down the row
of herpetologists here for the show. Then, in another, a back row,
sit those whose interests lie in mouse and rat aesthetics
rather than their behavior
or market potentail--Oh the beautiful,
beautiful rats, they sigh, oh the beautiful rats.