The Testing of Anti-Depressants on Laboratory Rats

Lately I’ve had the feeling-

Call it a notion-

That whether I’m staring at the same wall 

eleven hours a day 

Or rearranging the wood shavings in my unfurnished cage,

That really I'm just going through the motions;  

Even the maze they drop me in each afternoon 

observing me as I go through 

just doesn't engage me the way it used to. 

But since last week, all that has changed. 

and though I am not exactly certain what this new drug does 

what I pieced together from eavesdropping on them 

is that it has something to do with something called Serotonin 

and the positive results an uptake of it can yield. 

Now being a rat, I must confess

pharmacology is a bit outside my field 

but judging by their glowing faces

You could tell they hoped this pill might solve

a problem that has accompanied man throughout the ages.  

and though I cannot speak of the human condition, 

by the third day of tests, you could detect quite a change

in my disposition. 

While before, the endless days cooped up in a cage

Always left me a little emotionally drained  

Now I feel quite an affinity 

for all my daily activities 

Never before have I stared at the wall so enthusiastically 

Or rearranged the wood shavings in my cage with such vivacity 

And as for the maze that I run through every day 

while I used to go through it in the most apathetic fashion 

Now I fly through those same corridors 

With such élan,  such passion! 

Even the scientists seem sincerely happy 

When they observe my new-found contentment 

As if this pill was designed not just to expel

Man’s despair but mine as well.    

And as for my previous ennui, I must confess

what with my busy schedule of cages to squat in 

and mazes to be dropped in 

who can find time to be so depressed?   

And though I will be euthanized in a week or two 

(Such is the destination all us lab rats are headed to)

It is no great matter! 

These minor inconveniences do not have the same effect on me that they used to. 

Now I take it all in stride,

Stoic, complacent, and unfazed 

And if you don’t believe me, 

then come visit the Lab in the next few days

And you will see me

Smiling brightly 

Through the bars of my barren cage.