Muscled, black, with steel-green eye,
Swishing through the rye grass
With thoughts of mouse-and-apple pie,
Tail balancing at half-mast.
And the mouse police never sleeps,
Lying in the cherry tree.
Savage bed-foot warmer
Of purest feline ancestry.

Look out, little furry folk!
He's the all-night working cat.
Eats but one in every ten,
Leaves the others on the mat.
And the mouse police never sleeps,
Waiting by the cellar door.
Window-box town crier;
Birth and death registrar.

With claws that rake a furrow red,
Licensed to mutilate.
From warm milk on a lazy day
To dawn patrol on hungry hate.
No, the mouse police never sleeps,
Climbing on the ivy.
Windy roof-top weathercock;
Warm-blooded night on a cold tile.