Noblesse Oblige

Don’t starve the mice, dear;
don’t leave them in their holes 
to wonder about the cruel world.
Leave a crumb for them — they’ll have
to climb the chimney bricks like Half Dome

to get to it, but let them know it’s there.
A little sign in mouse language.
A tiny recording device blasting advertisements.
Is there mouse TV?  Use every media outlet available —
are there mouse newspapers? “The Daily Mouse Ledger?” 

Don’t waste time on social networking as their tech
has not developed to that level.  Still, we must do
everything in our power to make them climb for the crumb.
Make them whisper of it in their mouse circles.
Martha, my love, my dear — everything we are

depends on us making the mice climb for the crumbs
we can offer them!  To cut them off entirely would be cruel
and we are not cruel people, not as long as I can say something
about it.  You say they frighten you, they are dirty creatures,  
they carry diseases — and I agree with you; the Black Plague

rose from among such as these…but we must not kill them.
No traps, no poisons.  No hard boot on a frail neck.
We depend on them as much as they do us, you see.
We leave them crumbs to amuse us, to teach us how to be
gentle and generous. We are The One Percent.  It’s our one job.