Sidewalk Serenade

As she walked home from work one day,

A mouse on the sidewalk lay,

She saw it there, but couldn't say,

If it was alive or if it had started to decay.

But as she drew closer, she saw,

A lifeless rodent on the floor,

Its tiny body now raw,

Reminder of death's door.

Each day she walked that same way,

She watched the mouse decompose,

The body slowly turning to her prose,

A reminder of life's finality.

Sometimes she'd avoid that spot,

For the sadness it brought was hot,

A reminder of what we've got,

And that one day we’ll all rot.

But as she walked, she couldn't help,

But think of all the mouse had felt,

The life it lived, and all its welps,

And the cycle of life, it was dealt.

And though it made her heart ache,

To see the mouse's body break,

She knew one day, her own would make,

The same journey, for death's sake.

The mouse, a small and fragile thing,

Reminded her of how life is fleeting,

how in death taunts every little thing,

We all return to the earth, and now she’s weeping