Best Laid Plans

a week before Christmas I'm
in the basement opening
an old suitcase and there it is
inches from my face running
for the corner a streak of gray
chased by the long slender tail

in the night I lay two traps
each saying take eat be welcome
in my house each easy and cold
and lying in bed I cannot sleep
listening for the fall so sure
of which I am the cause

as I saw her in precaution so I
see her in daylight small
and calm beneath the trap and
only then looking to the corner
and the second upturned trap
do I see at last and clearly
the shape of things I have chosen