“We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.”

—  Theodore Roethke

"The Bat," ll. 5-10
Open House (1941)
Context: He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.

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Theodore Roethke photo
Theodore Roethke 86
American poet 1908–1963

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