I Don'T Give a Rat's Tail

This is the tale of a soul reaching out to others, but receiving a cold shoulder wherever she goes. Words and phrases are misconstrued, meanings attached which cloud the issues which she wishes to address. A passel of jaded poets condescending; who sear and cauterise synapses of intellect, and in the bud, it’s vim. I don’t give a rat’s tail anymore. Copyright © Suzette Richards | Year Posted 2019 REPOSTED 11 July 2021 with white space added between the lines. POET'S NOTE: The expression with reference to a rat that I use in my shaped poem, could perhaps be related to a phrase ‘don't give a dead rat’ from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). ‘The Mouse’s Tale’ (which was my inspiration for this concrete shape) is a shaped poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though no formal title for the poem is given in the text, the chapter title refers to ‘A Long Tale’ and the Mouse introduces it by saying, ‘Mine is a long and sad tale!’ As well as the contribution of typography to illustrate the intended pun in this title, artists later made the intention clear as well.