a mouse
a mouse
wild in the house
clothed in velvet
soft like a cat
gray as a stone
with
apple-seed eyes
looking for rice
or
something else nice
with koshur spices
tiny and sweet
just like itself
in New York City
Christmas nights sparkle
days are of balsam
and Austrian pine
chestnuts roast
over a fire
just like the song
noses like ice
hands gloved in velvet
just like the mouse
lost in the house
wild as a fox
tiny and sweet
mouse
oh mouse
wild in the house
in soft velvet fur
gray as a cat
or
an old stone wall
your
apple-seed eyes
are looking for rice
or
something else nice
with koshur spices
tiny and sweet
just like yourself
The Mouse: When my cat died last year, I acquired a mouse with a charming personality, five-toed feet, four-fingered hands, and a slightly prehensile tail. The mouse preferred to eat rice and anything cooked with koshur spices. I never saw it drink water, but it may have sipped from the dogs’ water bowls. It hung around for about a month, before receiving notice to move elsewhere.
The Spices: Koshur spices are spices used in Kashmiri cooking – the Kashmiri kitchen is called the koshur saal. Some commonly-used koshur spices are: zeur (cumin seed / zeer); roung (clove / loung); ledar (turmeric / haldi); aal (cardamom / elaichi); dalchini (cinnamon); shonth (powdered ginger-root / sund); badiyan (powdered fennel / sonf); yengor (asafoetida / heeng). These spices are called tiny or sweet because they’re not hot on the tongue.
© 12 Dec 2006 Heather Quinn (rev. 16 Dec 2007)
