Encore, With Mouse

Last night, I dreamed of you
at three years old in
those green pajamas your
still blond hair curly and
too long. You with a
finger to your lips,
Intent on studying the mouse
in the Have-A Heart trap—
the mouse I caught last night
persistent in his or her efforts
to escape and tell the world
that time is fluid,
movable as a breeze, amazed
mouse who doesn’t know this
goes on all over town, in
the rooms of every mother’s mind
Memories caught with care and luck
then released
back into the wild world of now.