Rats strong ties, in which family survival lies
Infants nurtured with care by each parental pair
A power structure cemented in place
Every rat knows another's face
Community peace, until numbers increase
It's a rat race, a world where all need space
Too many rats in a cage, red eyes filled with rage
With anxiety they shake, as fragile tempers break
Mother's and fathers eat young, order broken, high strung,
Sick, weakened immunity in a lost community
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Author:
sorenbarrett (
Offline) - Published: October 19th, 2025 03:13
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 41
- Users favorite of this poem: Tristan Robert Lange, Aman 12
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Comments8
A poem that really hits hard as an allegory, here. The rats effectively become a mirror for us. At first there’s order and care, but once numbers swell, harmony collapses into stress, violence, and sickness. It’s a stark reminder that overpopulation doesn’t just strain resources, it erodes the very bonds that hold a community together. Makes one wonder which parts of our home has the greatest incidence and what should be done about it. 🙏🕊️
Thank you so much Cryptic for the read and interpretation. Far too comprehensive for a poem to encompass, but overpopulation leads to many of our present day problems and the only possible solution is not technology but depopulation our choice is how we want to do that. A stark and dark thought.
Truly. Which is what sparked my response; that enigmatic ’how.’
The world is on the move, and the unease is tangible now.
It's not going to end well, especially not in Britain, where the breaking point has been reached.
Thank you Paul for your read and comment it is true a disaster we have brought on ourselves.
That moment...“Too many rats in a cage”...it’s where everything fractures. The image lingers because it isn’t just rats you’re showing us. It’s what happens when compassion has no room to breathe. Very well done, Soren.🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Thank you Tristan for the read and comment it is just what was intended in this write. We have made rapid population increase in the past century and it is geometric in its projections. In my lifetime I have seen space shrink even in the USA in the west. There is a lack of water where there wasn't before, foods are now necessarily produced with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, packaging, noise has increased, air is not as clean, and with all this instead of knowing more people we know fewer and care about even less. It won't be long now, maybe not in my life time but certainly in that of my grandchildren something will happen.
I hear you! Plenty of things heading us that way and overpopulation is one of big ones. But some billionaires things we need more, not less...as they weirdly plan colonize Mars. 🤷♂️ Can't make it up. 🤨
Billionaires need more consumers to by goods that their companies are dependent on and are narcissistic enough to not worry about anything beyond their life time.
Good write SB. Hope I don't have to waste another poem telling folk they are not rats, hamsters, gerbils, nor elephants in my pic! lol.
Thanks so much Orchi for the read and no I've been around long enough to know.
"Billionaires need more consumers..." Got it in one, Soren.
Thanks Dave I got ya and have to agree so just wait till tomorrow's poem to talk about that. Appreciate the read and comment
Tremendous as per
The ending is amazing
Thanks Peto I appreciate the review and your kind words. They are appreciated
Stong words soren, we are all becoming rats in a cage nowadays but I still try to think outside the box.
Andy
Thanks so much Andy and that is where we need to be, outside the box.
an allegory to remember... an utopian rat society ends in communal collapse.
Thank you for the read and understanding.
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