The Rat on a mat

I wrote this poem as a way to capture the spirit of the poetry Dr. Seuss wrote, while moving beyond his legacy of racism, as well as a reaction to the idea that play/fun always needing to be disruptive. Fun doesn't have to be racing, scoring, or winning. It can be fun just to be together and sing... or make silly rhymes!

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It was sunny one day and we're ready to play
We've done all our homework already today

We were all set to go and we opened the door
When a rat shimmied in and set up on the floor

"Hello" said the rat "I have come here to play"
I am fun and funny so let's start right away

You may have heard tales of a certain bad cat
That pulled endless tricks from he outrageous hat
You might think that I'd be exactly like that
But I'm not I'm a rat with a really nice mat

And with that the rat took his mat out with glee
And said "this mat is for yoga and for tranquility"

And the next thing we knew he showed down facing dog
And Tommy and I well we stared quite agog

"A rat with a mat doing yoga with us?
"What? That that's crazy! It's totally nuts!"

"C'mon," said the rat "we will have lots of fun!"
And then we were all in pose Warrior one

But it wasn't so clear just what else we could do
So then in a moment we'd done Warrior two

"I'm a much better friend than that silly old cat!"
Said the rat as he stretched out along his whole mat

"It's time to move on from the cat and the mouse"
"It's time to be thoughtful and not wreck the house"

"That mouse that's named Mickey has nothing on me"
As Tommy and I posed in Warrior three

And we sat and we stretched and we lay in repose
And we opened our backs in a deep cobra pose

And we lay on our mats in Shraavana rest
And we said "Mr. Rat you're the best you're the best!"