The Winter Sonnets Of Ebenezer Scrooge (Sonnet 20) Poem by Troy Cochran

When snow mounts high on London rooftops,
I, in my sleeping cap, keep company
With a cupboard mouse who loathes to visit me
For breadcrumbs that it thinks in hopeful thought
I will not miss. I've never told him just how
Right he is; nor that I saved them just for his.

Sleepless nights, I think, are made for this;
For snowflakes walking light as cupboard mice;
Chimney smoke that curls around its sleeping folk
And hisses from a chimney poke to lick at ice;
For little scratching minds, like chimney sweeps,
But seeking sootless thoughts from dreamless streets.

Winter shares me nothing that my belly tells.
Still: I am the first to hear the morning bells.