Once upon a time there were two rats
who came out at night when they would not be found
and killed. They avoided the poison
which had been put down for them.
They ate scraps and left droppings and trailed
potential disease around the place.
At the end of every night they went back
into hiding.
No one got ill, though no one would ever claim
that there was not a danger of sickness.
More poison was put around on the next night.
The rats ate it, but they crawled back
into hiding and when they died
the place smelled quite bad and no one ever found them.