Ratvocate: A Poem

Owning rats, or as some say, being owned by rats, is a journey. For me it began with being intensely rat-phobic to where I am now, rat-obsessed (ok, i admit it).

Ratvocate: A Poem

Published Friday, May 12, 2006 by eileen2000 | E-mail this post

Well, Pez and I took a trip to the outside world yesterday and it was ugly. Ratphobes all around. I came home feeling discouraged and wrote the first 4 stanzas of a poem about people's ignorance.

When I showed it to John he gently reminded me that I used to feel that way, too and that centuries of prejudice couldn't be eradicated overnight. That was a wake-up call. There is alot of work to do to educate people, hence the title and the last 4 stanzas.

Ratvocate
by E. McGarvey
dedicated to Pez and Ratty

I think that they will never see
this rat
as lovely as can be.

Her velvet tail and sparkling eyes
are beauties
they don't recognize.

I think that they will ever be
too blind
and ignorant to see

this innocent and trusting soul,
a love
that they will never know.

And yet, I too, was once like them
so full
of fear and ignorance.

One little rat, with bright pink eyes
taught me
my fear was ancient lies.

So I will try and do the same
to clear
the clouds of human blame;

to teach them of this special pleasure,
a rat,
a gift, a moment's treasure.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. That means you are welcome to keep it or redistribute it as long as you give credit and don't make changes or use commercially.

Labels: poetry/literature, rattie PR

2 Responses to “Ratvocate: A Poem”

Anonymous on 4:17 PM

I really like it!
eileen2000 on 6:35 PM

thank you, athanasia. I think most ratlovers have experienced similar attitudes and can relate. I really do want to educate people.

I'm eileen2000
Portland, OR, United States
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Ratvocate: A Poem

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2 Responses to “Ratvocate: A Poem”

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