Related quotes: Today, if you invent a...

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

quote by Ronald Reagan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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zy A Mousetrap (a Fable ~ Author Unknown)

A country mouse heard a rustling noise and looked through a crack in the wall to see what might be going on. He saw the farmer and his wife opening a box. To the mouse’s great dismay the box contained a mousetrap. Alarmed the mouse rushed out to the farmyard to spread a warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house! ”

The chicken, who had been clucking and scratching the earth, raised her head and said: “Mr. Mouse I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. So I shall not allow myself to be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house! The pig sympathized, but said; “I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it. Be assured however, that you will be in my prayers”.

Next the mouse went to the cow and repeated his alarm: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house! ”. The cow looked at him and said: “Gee Mr. Mouse that’s is to bad for you, but it’s no skin off my nose”.

Mr. Mouse returned to the farmhouse head down and dejected. Left to face the mousetrap alone. That very night the loud snap of a mousetrap snapping shut was heard throughout the farmhouse.

The farmers wife got up from bed and rushed out to see what had been caught in the trap. In the darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake which had gotten its tail caught in the trap. As she stepped near the trap the snake struck out and bit her on her foot. The farmer rushed her to the hospital where the doctors gave the only treatment available but could not guarantee a full recovery. The farmer’s wife asked to be allowed to return to the farmhouse to recuperate.

Once home the farmer’s wife continued to feel ill. She developed a fever so the farmer, hoping to make her feel well, went out to the farmyard and killed the chicken to make his wife some soup. But her sickness continued and many friends and neighbors stopped by to wish her well and offer assistance. Grateful for their concern the farmer went out to the farmyard and slaughtered the pig so that he could feed the well-wishers.

Alas the farmer’s wife continued to decline in health and after some days she passed away. Knowing that many friends and relatives would arrive for the funeral the farmer had the cow butchered so that he would have meat to feed these mourners.

The mouse could only watch from his little crack in the wall. Saddened at the loss of his farmyard friends, but knowing that he had done all he could to warn them of the danger posed by the mousetrap.

The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and shares their concern with you, Remember the story of the Mr. Mouse and the mousetrap. We are all connected in life in what may seem mysterious ways, so when one of us is threatened we are all at risk.

Author Unknown

poem by Mary Havran
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Cat Mouse Space Games

on earth many a mouse
hunting prey cheese
is swift mousetrap caught

in space the moon
is the night mouse
the earth hunting cat

earth waits huge mouth open
huge feline fangs teeth showing
waiting to swallow whole mouse

a natural ending to cat mouse games
base animals space wars old habits
space quarantine grounds earth minds

poem by Terence George Craddock
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Alankar (Decor) -32

Chase (Rondeau Redoubled)

I won't let you go out o' little mouse
Shall see to it once and all for today
You run run-I run run-round round the house
But I win, you're caught and lost just today

Here I keep the trap to trap and dismay
Sugared magic sure you're fooled o'poor mouse
Cunning you think? brainy you think? ..today
I won't let you go out o' little mouse

Fought, caught, taught to rot petty petty mouse
Bitter squeaks, what a pest, what a hell, hey
Snouty mouse, messy beast, out from this house
Shall see to it once and all for today

May foe feline be fed on you today
Be hooked and thrown-that I shall venge you mouse
Ha, ha, ha then shall all end just today
You run run-I run run-round round the house

No reason, no season, no taste o' mouse
krrkk, krrkk-nibbling all things, all time whole day
Like thief hide and steal you do in my house
But I win, you're caught and lost just today

Here is the trap for your best goal today
Slip in soundless for the 'masaal' o'mouse
I'm sure you will tempted fall but at bay
Thrown awed by foe feline outside the house
I won't let you

poem by Indira Renganathan
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In baiting a mousetrap with cheese, always leave room for the mouse.

Greek proverbs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Mouse Is Killed Today

a mouse is killed today
by an artist
who got mad because
the mouse ate his painting
of the nude woman

that evening while he got so furious
the mouse was at his hole
on the floor eating his usual cheese

the artist mumbled and murmured
and grumbled
and the mouse heard it
and called it
slapstick poetry
a doggerel,

the artist was not able to hold his temper
anymore

got an armalite and shot the hole with the mouse in it

in the name of art
the artist invokes his right to kill the mouse

he says it was
' clearly an artistic expression
and protected by the First Amendment.'

poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Tiny Mouse

tiny mouse tiny mouse how are you today
tiny mouse tiny mouse be good today

poem by Alyssa Subera
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Missing

Has anybody seen my mouse?

I opened his box for half a minute,
Just to make sure he was really in it,
And while I was looking, he jumped outside!
I tried to catch him, I tried, I tried....
I think he's somewhere about the house.
Has anyone seen my mouse?

Uncle John, have you seen my mouse?

Just a small sort of mouse, a dear little brown one,
He came from the country, he wasn't a town one,
So he'll feel all lonely in a London street;
Why, what could he possibly find to eat?
He must be somewhere. I'll ask Aunt Rose:
Have you seen a mouse with a woffelly nose?
He's just got out...

Hasn't anybody seen my mouse?

poem by Alan Alexander Milne
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a mouse teaches Diogenes

You see Diogenes living in the slums. He lives in a barrel. This is the man even Alexander the Great admires. So it makes you wonder about Diogenes.

So you pretend to be there quite by accident and you ask: “Diogenes…Who was your teacher? ”

“A mouse was my teacher, ” says Diogenes.

You are quite confused. And you say: 'A mouse is your teacher? And how is that, Diogenes? '

“Well, most exquisite Sir, ” says Diogenes to you. “Most cultured Sir, ” he says. “I had no home and I was in the streets. I almost killed myself. Then I saw mouse. Mouse ran around and looked for food and it found some and I observed mouse for over two days. And I realized how resourceful mouse was. And then I said to myself: ‘Learn of the mouse, Diogenes- and all will be well.’ And so I learned of mouse. And every time I have a problem, I simply ask myself: ‘How will mouse solve this? ’ And so mouse became my teacher. And now, most Exquisite Sir, I have a problem. You. I want to get rid of you and I ask myself: ‘How would mouse solve this problem? ’ He would bite…”

You listen to this and you are afraid – and you run. And Diogenes has done well; he has learned well from his teacher. And you can hear him shouting to you: “By the way, who was your teacher? ”

poem by Raj Arumugam
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A mouse called Paul

There was once a young mouse called Paul,
And though he'd no prowess at all,
He felt he could do anything,
So on him danger would befall,
The things that one shouldn't go near,
Failed to invoke in him a fear,
Which led to him imitating,
A remarkably skilful peer,
He saw the prize on a mousetrap,
Somehow retrieved without mishap,
When Paul tried it out for himself,
A squish was heard after a snap,
He's now pinned to a bit of wood,
With two back legs that are no good,
As he had felt himself able,
To accomplish more than he could.

poem by Christian Lacdael
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The Mouse In The Maze

You did not
need to telephone today
to tell me
that you would not see me.
Today.
I already knew.

You left your job
I knew
you would not see me
very often.
If at all.
From this point on.

You live in the country
you can go nowhere.
Without justifying your time
people knowing.
Letting people know
paying for petrol.

You pay for petrol
money you no longer earn.
Where do you go?
Account for the petrol!
You do not realize yet
that you live in a maze.

You live in a maze
you are a mouse.
Merv runs the maze
you may run the house.
Or your own treadmill
you may run both.

You may run both
but both lead to nowhere.
You are the trained tame pet
caged laboratory mouse.
You may only run the house
and your children's home.

You are a mouse.
Merv the perve runs the maze.

The really sad thing is
he does not even bait you.
With a whole piece of cheese.
You run his prison maze
craving crumbs of affection.
He sometimes lets you keep.

You are only his mouse
running his relocated maze.
You are not as important
as his computer mouse.

Yet isn’t it funny
that I should fall for...
fall in love with
such a funny
mouse in a maze?

Apparently you are destined
to live a maze life,
running your treadmill
in submission,
to all important wishes
satisfying, the maze master?

poem by Terence George Craddock
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It is function of government to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience.

quote by Murray Kempton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Griefs of Ancient Gosh

I happened in Gosh on an ancient day,
In the land of Glugs far, far away
Where the skies are green and the grass is pink
And the citizens rarely troubl'd to think.
Each had a vote; they were proud of that;
But they left all else to the Bureaucrat.
Still, of course, such folly never could be
In a civilised land this year A.D.

A junior clerk in Department A
Sent a requisition in one day
For a mousetrap to Department B.
This came to the ears of Department C,
Whose head said, 'Just a moment please.
You control the traps, but we the cheese.'
Then Department D chipped in in a trice
And cried, 'Checkmate! We control the mice.'

Then Departments E, F, G, H, I
Became involved, and the talk ran high,
Till the Livestock Branch got dragged in, too,
And the Vermin Board, and I don't know who
Besides, till the mousetrap matter grew
From a mild dispute 'mid a trifling few
To a Public Question so immense
That a tax was levied to meet expense.

Well, time rolled on, as it ever has rolled
And the junior clerk, now bald and old,
Received a pink form one fine day
Which said, 'One trap, mouse. Passed O.K.'
But he answered, this impatient chap,
Grown peevish, too, 'Keep your blinkin' trap!
For a trap I made from an old jam tin
Long since; and I caught my mouse therein.'

So an issue rose of a different sort,
And they sued the clerk in the State High Court
Which sat so long and talked such bosh
That a fierce Dictator loomed in Gosh;
And he took one long, deep, shuddering breath
And condemned that junior clerk to death
And then, when they sought the man, they found
He had been some twelve years underground.

Such is the tale. But, understand
It happened in Gosh - a backward land
Inhabited then by a race called Glugs,
Free-born, with a vote, but mostly mugs
For, of course, such nonsense never could be
In a modern, model Democracy
Like ours. Things never could happen so.
Absurd!... Or could they? ...Oh, I don't know.

poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
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Today is just another day

Today is just another day
Of highs and lows
When the winds blow and the waters flow

Today is just another day
A day to make amends and new friends
For there will come a time it will all end

Today is just another day
We eat and go to work
Some seat and wait for luck
Others cheat giving the sweet talk

Today is just another day
Where we must live for tomorrow
Or give in to everlasting sorrow

Today is just another day
We breathe in the same air
Trying to invent new ideas
Exhibiting passionate care or fear

Today is just another day
While some of us delight in joy
Others will find a way to deploy
Tools to destroy the moments we enjoy

Today is no different from yesterday
Technology the only change in the game
The people are still the same
Looking for one to take on the blame
Always worshipping those with a name
Broken hearts and love keep alive the dying flame

Today is just another day
It will fade away
Quickly into yesterday
Tomorrow then gladly will become today!

poem by Sylvia Chidi
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An elephant is a mouse, built to government specifications.

quote by John Herro
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Real Cat And A Real Mouse

My cat is not much of a hunter. A mouse
he brought in and did not kill; now in my house, ...

...this small but wild creature, to name I not dare
it has cute pink feet and has gray for it's hair.

So why does my can bring in things that are prey
and leave them to bounce around day after day?

And I can not catch it, I have not the whit.
And nor does my cat because that cat will sit...

...and watch as I try to get that mouse to stray
away from the hiding place...leaves in dismay...

...the two of us. We just don't know what to do.
This mouse is quite stealth as it poops in my shoe.

Today is the day I shall set a safe trap
to catch what my cat brought in, my cat's a brat.

poem by Sarah Sisson
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I believe in an America with a government of men devoted solely to the public interests — men of ability and dedication, free from conflict or corruption or other commitment — a responsible government that is efficient and economical, with a balanced budget over the years of the cycle, reducing its debt in prosperous times — a government willing to entrust the people with the facts that they have — not a businessman's government, with business in the saddle … not a labor government, not a farmer's government, not a government of one section of the country or another, but a government of, for and by the people.

quote by John F. Kennedy
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The citizens of New Hampshire expect and deserve a government as clean as our mountain streams and as open as our blue skies. Today let us pledge together to make this government - the people's government - clean, open and honest.

quote by John Lynch
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Why Are You Gloating?

Why are you gloating?
You look as if you were a mouse,
Who was just awarded...
A lifetime supply of cheese.

'That's almost funny.
No.
But...
Say I 'was' that mouse.'

Okay...
Mouse.

'And that mouse was suspected of stealing cheese.
And those who made the cheese...
Did all they could to find the mouse guilty of the crime.'

Go ahead,
I'm listening.

'And...
The mouse,
Kept telling the makers of cheese...
They actually befriended rats!
And those rats were the culprits of the theft all along.'

I don't get it.
What has that got to do with you?

'You see...
The folks had their eyes focused on the mouse closely.
Under microscope.
Not realizing they socialized and entertained disguised rats.
Masquerading as wholesome folks with undeniable integrity.'

What became the outcome?

'Well...
Not only was the mouse awarded that lifetime of cheese you mentioned.
But efforts long dismissed achieved notoriety for that same mouse.'

Soooo,
'Why' are 'you' gloating?

'Forget it.
Just forget it.'

Hey,
Wait a minute.
Don't get angry with me.
You were the one to bring up the mice and rats in disguise,
Working inside a cheese factory.

Yeah...
That's right.
Walk away.
You need to lay that head down and get some rest.

No wonder I see him smiling all the time.
The dude is nuts!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

quote by Philip Levine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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