Scuttle, Scuttle, Little Roach

SCUTTLE, scuttle, little roach— How you run when I approach: Up above the pantry shelf, Hastening to secrete yourself. Most adventurous of vermin, How I wish I could determine How you spend your hours of ease, Perhaps reclining on the cheese. Cook has gone, and all is dark— Then the kitchen is your park: In the garbage heap that she leaves Do you browse among the tea leaves? How delightful to suspect All the places you have trekked: Does your long antenna whisk its Gentle tip across the biscuits? Do you linger, little soul, Drowsing in our sugar bowl? Or, abandonment most utter, Shake a shimmy on the butter? Do you chant your simple tunes Swimming in the baby's prunes? Then, when dawn comes, do you slink Homeward to the kitchen sink? Timid roach, why be so shy? We are brothers, thou and I. In the midnight, like yourself, I explore the pantry shelf!