Muskrats of Madison Avenue

5:10 pm
Rat-like creatures
Pointed noses
Sharp beady eyes
skitter on shiny mahogany tables
in conference rooms
Plot their campaigns
Keep her fat so she’ll need their diets

Mini-grocery store down the hall
Perfect customer buys
Sweet and salty lo-cal snacks
Diet kits and personal scales

Muskrats close their eyes to her
staring at her bathroom mirror
Squelch her plaintive
“I’m not that fat, am I?
I don’t look that bad, do I?”

Invasive pests squint as
she quivers and shivers on the bathroom scale
Scratch their heads —
“How much should she gain
before we fill her head with
dreams of
how her wishes will come true?”
How good she’ll look?
How she’ll get the guy
in the next cubicle
to ask her out?”