Mercy for the Rats
Cassund Olivier

Chalk lines point from the stoop to the backyard. It hasn’t rained all week.

Rats can read instructions. Rats make promises too.

They have a God to answer to. They believe in acts of service.

A rat is a grill master. A rat is an infamous and respected addict.

We rummage for the nicotine in our hand like we rummage through the trash.

We fall to our knees and we bow down.

To the girl passing the chalk line on her bike with the face paint on a sabbath.

Bow down to the chalk line.

Higher and higher we bow down.

Follow the chalk line. Worship the chalk line.

Step aside and give the chalk line bike tires and feet.

Die by the chalk line in the sun and welcome the flies as offerings.

Kick the rat or kick the chalk line.

Flies can feast by the fence in the shade.

It hasn’t rained all week.

In the next life the rats will come back as tsunamis all week long.

Until the chalk line returns to its maker.

Cassund Olivier is a Haitian American writer and freelance editor from Brockton, Massachusetts. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences from Western New England University, and a Master’s degree from New York University in Creative Writing. Represented by Angeline Rodriguez (WME), she is working on her debut novel. Her work has appeared in Yearling Poetry Journal and Foothill Poetry Journal. A painter and a musician, she is based in Brooklyn, New York