Jake's Flea Market

after she’d heard an ale wife’s curse
had caused a neighbor’s house to burn in an hour
in which all the villagers harvested in a field

carolin’s grandmother began to breed
the black out of her constable cats that

patrolled to and fro before the granary

apprehended the vagabond and robber rats
tried them in a trial of play

the mouse that escaped 
was dismissed as innocent

the guilty were beheaded by cat fangs

she bred a fading into them

most faded to one of the various shades of gray
and some faded to white

some faded to the colour of flame