I spent the summer of 1988 working at Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, MA in a rat room. This is basically a rat warehouse where perfect, little, albino rats are produced for rat consumers. Anyways, the room I worked in was for all intents and purposes isolated from the outside world. Anyone who has worked in a clean room environment will know what I mean -- someone just doesn't stroll up and walk right into one of these places. There are rules. There is protocol. It was a four-day work week, and the team I worked with all used to come in at 0400 on Thursday morning so they could go home after lunch. This left me alone, isolated, in a room with lots of rats to just kind of let my mind wonder. It used to be pretty interesting to just stand there and listen. Anyway, I wrote this poem at some point. I'm not sure of the exact date. I tried to pattern it after some of the work of Stephen Crane that I had come to appreciate. He is probably my favorite poet. You can check out a small sampling of his work here.
Lab Rats
© Copyright 1988 by Richard D. Bramante, Jr. All Rights Reserved
Tiny pristine creatures
Trapped in miniature penitentiaries
For imagined crimes
Against humanity
Curious--
They investigate
Bold, whimsical, contemplating
A hand comes forth and takes the tiny soul
Extinguishing the life
With a fiery blast of death
Summer 1988, Charles River Laboratories Area 64, Wilmington MA