A Mouse Named Artichoke

A mouse named Artichoke
got into the barn
just as a dog nipped at his
tail. He slid through
the hole and began sobbing.
He wrote letters to his friends.
He decided to go
back to college.
He began making drunken
late night phone calls.
For instance, one call began,
"Lisa, I'm here
near the hay, across from the
corn--I've been here for...
hell, forget it, Lisa. It's me,
Artichoke."
He began work on a rap
album and started to work out.
The strain was visible in
everything he did. People said stuff like,
"Have you seen Artichoke? That
mouse is messed up."
He didn't know what to make
of it. He thought, either I'm becoming
something else, like, a different
system of molecules, or nothing
is changing and I've been eaten.
Nothing made sense.
Even years later he seldom slept the
whole night through, finding
himself awake, insect-like,
scratching and sniffing
the barn's wood floor.