I got ten hours sleep last night and I’m still wondering what the hell I was thinking! 🤣

This poem had been half written for quite a while but I’d got stuck, nothing like a self imposed public deadline to provide motivation. No, this was not my first take recording it, and I ended up changing one line slightly after finally managing to read it without getting tongue tied, but I didn’t have it in me to do another take after that! 😆 

Trouble and Strife

Let me tell you a story of Trouble and Strife
A pair of grey, bright eyed, inquisitive mice

Trouble was long-tailed and really quite thin
Strife had big ears and more meat on him

This curious pair lived under the stairs
In a house that quite desperately needed repairs

Which was rather annoying to folks big and small
But bothered the mice living there not at all

One night when the big, and small, folk were asleep
Trouble and Strife from the stairwell did creep

With whiskers a-twitching and paws on the scamper
They went forth to scout out the big picnic hamper

Creeping into the kitchen led by their noses
Leaping from chair legs to hang by their toeses

Swinging from tablecloth, scrambling high
They drew closer and closer to the smell of pork pie

Trouble slipped into the hamper with ease
Through a gap in the basket he managed to squeeze

On the table outside Strife could hear the first gnawing
As Trouble began his pork pie exploring

Now, when climbing a basket no mouse fears a fall
So Strife reached the closed lid in no time at all

A quick nibble here and a shoulder shoved under
The latch was detached, basket open to plunder

Strife jumped into the glorious culinary treasure
Of picnic supplies, mouse bliss beyond measure

Waxed paper wrapped cheeses and bread to have with them
Shiny red apples, grapes, fruit cake, ‘twas heaven

And right at the bottom beneath all the rest
Was the prize they’d first sought, the absolute best

Glossy brown pastrywith a hole nibbled through
Out of which trailed the tail of a mouse that Strife knew

Wasting no time at all Strife then joined in the meal
Nibbling and gnawing with astonishing zeal

Now, pork pie, it turns out, when mouse tums can’t fit more
Makes a mouse sleepy and inclined to snore

Trouble and Strife had meant to repose 
In their under stair nest before the sun rose

But the next day when opening the basket to nestle
Ginger beer bottles beside the pie vessel

A picnic disaster met folks big and small
No pork pie, just two mice curled up in a ball

#notasbadasvogons