This is my second rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Maybe I should do a new one each year. I haven’t seen any mice running around the house so far this year. Even the trap has gone untouched. I recently read that they’re probably living in the walls of this old house and have found a safe place to reproduce. I prefer to think they are all outside of the house.

POETRY BY KATHY BOECHER

‘Twas right before Christmas and in our simple old house,
Not a creature was stirring except one small mouse,
He wasn’t too big, but the sight made me cringe,
A mouse in the house meant he’d surely infringe,

So off to the hardware store, money in hand,
We picked up a mouse trap, we thought it was grand,
Guaranteed to trap mice with no trace of the dead,
We hoped it would work then we went off to bed.

That night I heard nothing, just the sound of my breath,
It saddened my heart to put someone to death,
After all he had siblings, a mom and a dad,
And it was so close to Christmas, it made me feel sad.

There must’ve been mice in that stable of old,
They went there for refuge from danger and cold,
When they looked at the Christ child, a sight to behold,
A Savior had come as once had been foretold.

I smiled and I thought of that sweet little child,
And the animals watching so meek and so mild,
The trap is still empty, no sight of the mouse,
A timely reprieve for the guest in our house.