Bank voles at Trinity College, Cambridge. (Three poems).(Poem)

 
Bank voles at Trinity College, Cambridge 
 
   At first the damp leaves 
   rustled with the thought 
   of unharvested sheaves 
   and undergrads untaught, 
 
   the myrtle greens, the browns 
   of soggy paper bags 
   or satin May Ball gowns 
   lacking designer tags. 
 
   Startled like a fear, 
   the stubby, red-haired mouse 
   showed its tufted rear 
   above a weed-choked house, 
 
   taking a nervous pause 
   beneath the shadowy leaf, 
   unworried by the cause 
   of rage, despair, or grief, 
 
   or sins that separate 
   man from a mouse so wary, 
   our rough but ...