War-Cats 'Pon the Field
At yon dun chasm stood the mouse,
Who freed our noble kith,
It is that hole parts man from mouse,
And the cats man stands with.
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It was a chiliad ago that
Those soldiers came to blows,
For honor and for duty and for
The vanquishing of foes.
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Those war-cats came a’riding on,
The close of dreary day,
They sang their bloody war-cat song,
A’riding all the way.
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“Oh Brothers”, sang the war-cats proud,
“Remember our just plan!”
“For man were ne’er kind to mouse nor
“Were mouse a’kind to man!
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“So call’d great man for vermin heads,
“Their face with anger lined!
“Ne’er quarrell’d mouse with man lest cat
A’quarrell’d on behind!”
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So went the war-cat’s song and so,
Went on their bloodied charge!
While former docile murine town,
Held bold their murine targe!
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Micefolk ran to and fro to try
And save their peaceful town,
And every mouse among them knew
This mouse of great renown.
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His heart outweighed brave Horatius
In love for his fair home,
And an account of his fine deeds
Would equal Homer’s poem!
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His mind like Diomedes yet
Ablaze with Nemo’s wit,
And strength of fair Achilles in
His every single hit!
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His aegis tall as Ajax and
His brow of Doric grace,
His snout of Persian mould atop
His noble Doric face!
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In dignity unequal’d and much
The same in time of war,
Ne’er had he found a fight himself
Yet fought he always at the fore.
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Still never poison pride flower’d
In our fair hero’s heart,
Remember’d always he
Modesty, for his art.
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When wept his countrymen this brave
Mouse stood and loudly spake,
“Do mice now suffer conquest from
“Those who our home would take?
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“Since puphood have ye not heard the
“Lays of long-dead mousekind?
“Which among the lot of you have
“Let them fade from your mind?
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“Ne’er were a mouse faced not drear odds
“And now no mouse will stand?
“Ne’er a mouse not love’d by mouse gods
“Where’re mice who love mouse land?
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“Take now your children and run with
“Your lovely mousen wives,
“And go with them and bear with them
“Whatever fate contrives.
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“For in yon path a thousand stand,
“And I’m not one but three,
“With love and faith on either hand
“To keep the bridge with me.
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“Run on o’Mousefolk, for every
“Mouse was born to do naught,
“If not to die for his kin and
“Mouse gods, so then he ought.
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“We part here now, and remember
“Well my final story,
“And suffice it to say only:
“Dulce et decorum
Est pro patria mori.”
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So spake that great unyielding mouse,
And so on went he forth.
At his appoint’d hour that brave mouse,
Shew’d then what he was worth.
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Now no Assyrians came down like
A wolf upon the fold,
Just war-cats in their numbers, and
One mouse from epics, old.
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March’d there no Etruscans nor any
Cossacks at feline fore,
And yet still this fel army was
Precise as those of yore.
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Stood firm this noble mouse as those
Brave war-cats bore on down,
And issued not a cry did he,
While guarding well the town.
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And gave those war-cats a bold shout,
And raised great war-cat swords,
For their unyielding war-cat code,
And great human overlords.
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And on that day a thousand lay,
Left broken on the field,
A thousand war-cat soldiers, and
A mouse upon his shield.
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That mouse took his final breath then,
His lungs lain with cat claws,
And pinken'd were his fallow legs,
Snapped by great war-cat jaws.
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In his straight path a thousand were
Yet stopped by only three:
Kept he that bridge with love and faith,
And mousen bravery.
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