I caught a mouse yesterday.
It was one of those
round-bellied,
big-eared ones.
Fresh from the field.
It must have envied
our monotonous,
LED-lit hall, 9-5 world.

The air rushed from my lungs
in a slight gasp
as it scampered
around the corner
of our office basement.
My package would have to wait.

I chased it into a dark room
and swung the door shut,
heart beating in my ears.
Its little nose sniffed
under the door, 
checking if I was still there.

Oh no, you don’t, I said,
blocking the inch-high gap
with a chair leg,
a trash can,
three signage stands,
two markers,
and a pair of scissors jammed
into the last slot.

I whipped out my phone
and called the front desk.
Not again, she told me
with a sigh of amusement.
We only banished a snake
just this morning.

What do you get 
when an employee,
a secretary,
and a maintenance man
open the door
to a makeshift mouse cage?
Pure chaos, of course.

One held a broom, 
the other – a dustpan.
And me?
Well, the best help
I could offer was
an upturned office bin.

Good thinking on my part,
I thought shortly
after the incident.
As my bin proved
the hero when
the little critter
dashed away from the broom,
jumped over the dustpan,
and into a room
across the hall.

He thought he was swift.
He thought he was smart.
He thought he could hide
in a wedge between walls.
But there I was,
a heroic mass of
grit teeth
and coiled limbs,
upturned bin raised
high above my head.

He sensed the danger.
He thought 
he could chance
an escape. 
But I was much
faster, much smarter
as well.

And I lunged forward
with my bin and a
ferocious yell.
With a defiant squeak,
the little guy
succumbed to his fate.

And the maintenance man
pinched his tail
sticking out
from under the bin.
He tossed away
the plastic
and snatched 
that mouse up
in his fist.

No curious critters
were harmed
in this stunt.
The little field mouse
must have had
quite the tail
to tell his buddies
when he scurried home.

And my day
in the office
made me wonder
if I ought to
give field-living
a try. Don’t they
always say
that the grass
is greener
on the other side?