A Brown Mouse Poem by Victoria Davis

Love endures all things.
A brown mouse bears witness
that there is no such thing as 'over.'
What began in the light of a fluorescent moon
On a train going nowhere,
is carried in the scent of
fermenting autumn cranberries
and the roar of calving glaciers.

Love bears all things.
A white mouse stands witness
that pain and fear and pride and error
conspire to erase all; but fail.
Days and nights live in memory
no distance, no time can sunder;
Flowing in silty glacial streams,
Defended by hedges of devils club;
celebrated in the music of a child's laughter.

Love believes all things.
A Chinese tiger prowls witness
that once begun there is no stronger force
than the binding of two hearts.
In the face of betrayal and anger,
in fear, and struggle, love believes in itself
Persisting when nothing else will.
In the song of a redpole, the chirp of a nuthatch,
Love endures, bears, believes
All things, always.