By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.
He likes the attic of an aging house.
His fingers make a hat about his head.
His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.
He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
(Theodore Roethke)
More Poetry from Theodore Roethke:
Theodore Roethke Poems based on Topics: Light, Nature, Place, Night, Faces, Old Age, Madness- Infirmity (Theodore Roethke Poems)
- Big Wind (Theodore Roethke Poems)
- She (Theodore Roethke Poems)
- Open House (Theodore Roethke Poems)
- Cuttings (later) (Theodore Roethke Poems)
- Once More, the Round (Theodore Roethke Poems)