THE MOUSETRAP

It keeps going off

because you say it does.

And it does because 

you are the one that keeps 

setting it and taking the bait.

You have said this also.

You are the one in fact

that calls it a mousetrap

in the first place.

What if it were something else?

What if you used a different metaphor,

one that didn’t turn you into vermin

and snap your neck in two?

What if there wasn’t bait

or a trap at all?

What if it were a magnifying glass

you found on the ground instead,

that called out to you, with the sun it its eye,

that you picked it up and when you did

saw things through it

you couldn’t see before: opportunities 

and choices that were right there 

under your very nose all the while,

instead of sure death or dismemberment?

Whaddaya think?

Which image would you rather have

lure you into its sphere of influence?