A/N: I had to write an ode for English class, so I was in this "O" kind of mood, walking around saying "O Carpet, O Wall," etc. to myself. Then I started thinking "O Mouse." Which got me thinking about Alice. After that, this poem basically wrote itself.

Disclaimer: I don't own Alice or the Mouse, and I make no material profit off this work. I'm not sure that matters, as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been in the public domain for years, but whatever.

Alice's Ode to a Mouse

Alice thought this must be the proper way of speaking to a mouse : she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen, in her brother's Latin Grammar, "A Mouse - of a mouse - to a mouse - a mouse - O Mouse!"

O Mouse!

Do you know the way

out of this pool?

I am very tired of

swimming about here,

O Mouse!

You, with your

long tail,

must be a much

better swimmer

than I.

You, with your

twitching nose,

must be able

to smell the shore,

unlike I.

You, with your

large ears,

can perhaps

hear the waves break,

but not I.

You, with your

sharp claws,

can surely

crawl your way out,

unlike I.

You, with your

twitching whiskers,

must be much better

at finding your way

than I.

You, with your

beady eyes,

can perhaps see

a far-distant shore

I cannot.

You, with your

sensitive paws,

must know how

deep the pool is,

unlike I.

O Mouse!

Do you know the way

out of this pool?

I am very tired of

swimming about here,

O Mouse!