Mouse

Each night the mouse creeps across
the shelter floor and watches us.
He’s not hungry or cold because 
he can get into the grain storage compartment.
We can’t.
What is the gestation period for mice?
If he has a mate they will inherit the entire shelter complex
unless I kill him tonight.
Why bother? We are dead in
a few days and no one else will come
after we are gone.
If he’s alone then he’ll die alone too.
But what if the radiation mutates
his heirs and they realize what
we have done?
I am too ashamed to let any other species
know how we have failed our stewardship.

—a man
  Kuban Steppe
  Europe