A MIDNIGHT CALLER

A MIDNIGHT CALLER

I slept all day and got up to find
When the gnaw of hunger came to mind
That a midnight caller was already there
And clearing my dish of much dreamt of fayre

Don’t eat it all, leave me some scrap
You’re a hedgehog you know and not tabby cat
You come uninvited yet still more you eat
Not one morsel left this dish a clean sheet

We differ much that she surely knows
Your coat is in armour and more spinney grows
Why would she stoke your back full of spikes?
You have not the feel that my mistress likes

I’m sleek and I’m perfect, the lustre is smooth
Pristine to the feel not a spine nor a groove
I need all my meat and my biscuit’s too
There just is not enough for diner for two

My coat needs stroking and so I drink milk
To keep up that texture so soft and like silk
I don’t eat your slugs and could not take a snail
Now I am not best pleased just look at my tail

Maybe you’re food well you are in my dish
I had a yen once for a spike, Oh how I now wish
But he did not roll himself up in a ball
If his name I purred when I came to call

No you are not food just a thief in the night
And what you are up to just cannot be right
So eat it all up and be on your way
At this gardens end we might meet one day

A remembered acquaintance two ships from tonight
That ate all my food and eloped by starlight
Next Time I’ll eat all that my mistress puts down
And leave nothing for hedgehogs that might be round.

JP.