I got a present

My friend, Dora, got me a present. A book called "The Selected Poems of Hamster." On the first page:

"The Characters:
Hamster, and Other Hamster."

Hamster writes lovely, emo poems for Other Hamster. Excerpts:

Scratching both my ears
with both my paws.
Itchy morning.

Unable to sleep. What
did we do so wrong
to lose our tails?
Night drips away
like the faucet.

.....

"Are you writing a poem
about me?
No?
Because I could say
some more things in French,
oui."

Her rumpled fur
her stirrings
not far
We are both on the wind.

.....

Spoken with authority
but somehow empty
and she knows it.

There was an ark?
Who was there?
Give me terms, give me
specifics.
.....

Quick nose
quicker than the eyes
changes everything.

I appropriate the dish
then the wheel, unable
to explain my need to
make a point.

.....

The voracious
imagination does nothing
with the earthen bowl
or the pellets.

The biological imperative
to skip about.

- (c) Carlos Blackburn, 2008.
Published by Ugly Duckling Presse