Rat Catcher to His Rats

You lady’s purses, you tack-toed wallops of white silk, you grim grins, I have you on my string as good as legal tender for my room & board at any inn, my dog & I welcome there only so long as you are not, my beauties— & so we’re tied together in a way. This broad-brimmed hat wards off two kinds of yellow, sun & scorn. How dare we subsist on the hard- won crumbs of brutes! But the trap is a good teacher. Somewhere you must have your own canny king, making free with all the best morsels of dark & swarming nations.