Mice

You cannot bear the challenges I seek, you say.
How was I to know, when I consider you an equal
When I have been you, so afraid;
When I am you still, so stupid, ignorant?

You run, retreat to flashing screens
And you wonder why you do not visit unknown lands
Why you do not love or have returned a love so great
As I have had with you, or so many times.

You beat upon yourself, as you have done
For years, beneath your table, so afraid.
No stories? No imagination, even, to keep you safe?
No walls, even, to shield you from view…

You are a grey mouse, shielded by a table’s leg
Your heart a thousand beats to my every one
Am I the great cat, ready for my prey
As you do make me out to be, cruel and unafraid

Or human, baiting a trap to snap your neck
Or blonde mouse, as timid in my ways as you,
Stepped only moments before into Paradise
And calling unfamiliarly back to you?

Can you ever know, from that small place?
Can you know, behind an immobile shield?
Can you ever know, when calling taunts
And pained insults into an abyss?

Try. Step out. Release your inner lion,
Or be, at least, a man.
I do not talk down to you. How could I?
When I am you.

When I remember, and yet live in fear.