Startled awake in a cold sweat
in stuffy heat of mid September
shaking her head, she can't forget
though she'd prefer to not remember
the nightmare of her life now left behind.

The baby cries out once again.
so that's what woke her from her sleep,
the sound of need from his play pen.
She stumbles in the dark to take a peep
at the one good thing in her life.

The door squeaks when opened, night light's on.
She thinks she saw something flash by
from the direction of her son;
just a floater in her sleepy eye.
She reaches down to check her child.

Then the light switch is finally found,
her child now calm within her arms,
her voice a reassuring sound,
he knows she'll keep him from all harms
and soon drifts back to a deep sleep.

She lays him back in his play pen
and sits in a nearby rocking chair
as memories return again
carrying her mind back there
to the flight from the intolerable.

To that man who had sired her son
to the man who turned her life to hell
since their marriage had first begun,
who'd beat her until eyes would swell,
who'd rape her almost every night.

And then one night he'd hit their child
which threw a switch within her mind
turning her from meek and mild
to one whose rage made her near blind.
She killed him that night in his sleep.

Then loaded everything she had,
took beloved child and drove away
(perhaps that night she had been mad)
but she was sane come break of day
having set sights on a better life.

Four states away she came to ground,
with her last money rented a shack
then took the first job that she found.
Her budget allowed little slack
but at least her child was safe.

Back in the chair sleep overtakes her
and as her eyelids start to fall
just as she succumbs to sleep's calm lure
is that faint scratchings in the wall?.......
...................

Thus it goes night after night:
exhaustion then interrupted sleep
to comfort her child from an imagined fright
while in the dark grey brothers creep
mistaken for mere blurring eyes.

Then one night sleep takes a stronger hold,
no nightmares only pleasant dreams
of pure snow and crisp biting cold........
Then slapped awake by baby's screams!!!!!!

She lurches up and stumbles in a daze
opens his door, turns on the light
rushes to crib where baby lays
then stops....frozen by the sight.

Three huge rats take another bite
one gets the last finger, another an eye
none fleeing from the blinding light
from their meal , tongueless, trying to cry
all partaking in their tender feast.

Then one slices into a big vein
and blood fountains in a scarlet stream
in this nightmare of real red and pain;
the mother joins her child to scream.
In her padded room she's screaming still
they say she likely always will.
part 2

Until years later silence reigns
so the guard go check her room
spotted with old urine stains
there's no one there within the gloom.
just a scrap of her hospital gown.

The grill is gone from the floor drain
just large enough for a small woman
especially one who is insane
with hatred for each single man
replacing fear within her mind.

They search the sewers down below
but all trace of her is gone
and in their head lamp's dispersed glow
the search is given up come dawn.
They guess she'll turn up one day soon

She found an exit to the street
got out and looked around in fear.
The only sound is her heart's beat
as she ducks into an alley, near
in the worst part of the ghetto.

There she furtively looks around
then burrows beneath a cardboard box
feeling like some prey now run to ground,
perhaps a bobcat or sly fox.
She curls up in a fetal form.

There she sleeps for two full days
till hunger forces her awake
her eyes covered in sleep's glaze
she slowly stands on legs that quake
and furtively surveys the scene.

Dumpsters, trash cans, all past full
spill their rancid perfume in the air.
The sun is their but shining dull;
a stray cat howls in fear somewhere
and a rat scurries from a burst trash bag.

Far back in the alley's end
a grimy door is thrown open
and a grubby man prepares to send
food scraps flying like to a pig pen
to dumpster which is almost clean.

The door slams back, she stumbles to there
attracted by the smell of food
and there in the dumpster tossed with no care
are diner scraps, she starts to brood
then climbs in and eats her fill.

Thus she sustains her days and nights
unseen among the city's litter
still pursued by nocturnal frights
ignored by all the downtown's glitter
spiraling further into madness.

Part 3
Until one damp and moonless night
in midst of a heat wave
she wanders from her usual site
to wanderlust she turns a slave
and scampers to the water front.

Nose twitches with the tang of salt
and the smell of old refuse
deep inside a warehouse vault
which has long been in disuse.
She enters it in search of food.

Dark as inside of a black cow
hands in front to feel her way
a whiff of something is caught now;
and the whiff becomes her prey.
She follows it to a dark stairway.

Down the rickety stair she goes
the scent transforms into fresh meat
then concrete meets her questing toes
so quiet she hears her heart beat
and a nearby chittering.

Completely blind she stumbles on
in search of the fresh meal;
outside has come the break of dawn
a furtive touch elicits a short squeal.

Then the sound of fleeing paws
are heard as red eyes flee from her
they give her little cause to pause
for now hunger makes her mouth slobber.
Then she almost falls upon her treat.

Squatting down she feels raw flesh
then draws a match to light the scene
hoping the meal is still fresh
not yet having turned to green.
Then the match is struck.

Such tiny flame, such huge horror
a half consumed bum at her feet
but not only that appears to her
gnawed bones lay about her feet
and in numerous surrounding piles.

And the match reveals myriad red eyes
surrounding her and drawing near
then showing a slight surprise
when silently she shows no fear.
Instead she starts to laugh.

Then she builds a fire to cook
meat is meat her mad mind declares
(this recipe is in no book)
She cuts and cooks beneath rats' stares
then invites them to join the feast............

Thirty years or more ago they say
since the woman was last seen
and never in the light of day
when her hordes all sit still and preen
tending the needs of the RAT QUEEN.