At the end of the summer,
Rob moved into his car,
and I was in love with him,
and he knew it and wasn't with me.
We were at his apartment, packing,
and Susie was there, vacationing
up from Virginia, and she wanted him too,
although she had slept
with his best friend the day before.
Rob sat on the bar, and I leaned
between his legs, and we were kissing.
Susie was watching. Then he said
he was going to set the rats loose
and I said, "No, they won't survive.
I'll take them." So we plopped the tank
in the back of Susie's red car,
and he kissed me again,
through the passenger window.
We took the rats to my house,
and my mom bitched a little. I put the cage
next to the rat my cat had caught in February,
that I had decided to keep because it would
freeze outside or the cat would eat it. And I was
very happy because I thought Rob would come back
for his rats sometime.
Rob's friend came by, after Susie was gone,
looking for me. He was better in bed
than Rob, he took an hour to unbuttom
my nightgown, he ran his hands through my hair.
I wrote Rob a note: "Dear Rob, Mike is better
in bed than you." Mike delivered the note.
Then some disease came to the house, and all
the rats died, one every day for three days.
I didn't know why. I had cleaned their cages
and fed and petted them. Susie laughed
when I told her, and she didn't care
about Mike, she had a guy from Death Angel
calling her. And I thought, Rob will hate me
for this. I knew he wouldn't come back.
Near the end of October, Rob came back.
He said, "I got your note." And I fixed him
a baloney sandwich, and we went to bed,
and he wasn't mad at all about the rats.
