Unlovely Demon
Mary Winters
Devil said to rats I'll grant you
some boons: unceasing urge to
explore, plus the ability to eat
anything, plus the means to transmit
disease: typhus and the plague --
your special way to transform
history. In return, you'll be
loathed. Rats agreed; spread from
Asia to Europe to the New World.
Spread to New York's Central Park
to wander like grazing squirrels
in sunlight near child-crowded
playground checking the earth for
grub, idle but thorough -- rats
who forgot the pact, thought of
themselves as just another common
park species like pigeons or
dachshunds. One rat became a pet;
took sick -- crept around
the apartment night and day,
fur falling out, so that a
visitor couldn't tell what
kind of animal it was --
just knew she could not
pick up the dying creature --
and rat had so loved a touch.
