Fifty Shades of Grey Mice

[RiverNotch]

--Three blind mice, three blind mice At first, this was detracting, what with the memory of children singing -- now, it's detracting, but more because it doesn't read like the rest. 

She wanted to be the only voice
in the universe to divide
dark from light--like God. "Like God" feels redundant. "In the beginning" being moved here would clarify the point just as much 

"She" being the farmer's wife -- by my clearest read, the author of the book, too. Is it a stereotype that farmer's wives are promiscuous?
So the farmer's wife -- the author -- wanted, somehow, all the attention to herself, attention a la God, want a la Lucifer. Minor point, though: does not God also exist in the universe? So how can she be the only voice? Unless the author meant that God existed in a different way than her, or that God doesn't exist at all; but for the first, that's too subtle a read, and for the second, there may be too many Biblical references here for that to be so.

In the beginning, she used bats
but found they saw better without eyes. Rhythmically, I prefer "...found that they..."

Kinda funny, my first reading of this: she used baseball bats, blinded her mice with them, found that they saw better without eyes. Still, that image of baseball bats stuck, as I transitioned to thinking of the beasts, and because of that it sticks more -- I wonder if others had the same experience.

We were blindfolded as we ran
through the hedgerow maze

So, now taking mice instead of bats, she blindfolded them, then stuck them in a maze, with her voice, I assume, as the only guide. Most straightforward two lines in this whole poem -- also, I think, the most effective. The poem's really, really quiet tone made the whole thought take longer than usual to sink, at least for me. And I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
As for how she blindfolded them (perhaps the book? I sort of imagine that blinding them would be somewhat better, but that would give too much good credit to the book ---- or perhaps the woman? In which case, I would prefer if the title were changed, since it's really what's leading me on to the thought of the book), what running is supposed to represent (living? loving?), and what the maze truly is (life? love? or a literal maze, built for The Shining-inspired abusecapades), as evidenced by the parentheticals, ambiguity abounds, though surely the good king.

past roses blooming in a perpetual night.
Beauty painted with a thorn's brush
against our skin. There was no red

With those blindfolds, she leads the mice from easier, possibly better (if temporary, illusory, although that's a thought the poem doesn't really explore) catches to, well, their deaths -- but surely they're not running to just their deaths, if they're running to the voice of the woman? Or is that the paradox of nihilism/atheism explored (in a world where the existence of "God" is completely sure, at least from the eyes of the observers)? Anyway, as the mice ran past them, they got wounded, but with the way the relevant lines are worded, there are two possible emphases:
1.) Beauty, as in the personification of beauty, guided a thorn's brush to create scars, whether themselves beautiful or not unclear, although the fact that beauty is what guides the brush clarifies the chances. The more likely guess, according to how the poem's now structured, because...
2.)...this second guess assumes the sentence is, in fact, a fragment; that beauty (thus, the scars are surely beautiful) is painted against the skin of the mice with a thorn's brush.
I do think the ambiguity here is bad, though, since it doesn't seem to add anything, only make the words seem deficient, as if the poet couldn't word it any better.
I do agree with an earlier critique that "roses blooming" seems a little disjoint, though not, for me, the image itself, which I find essential, since it focuses on the color of the roses, which seems to be the main theme of these three lines (and thus, I do think that to "throw scent" would weaken it, especially since it introduces a brand new, and by my judgment utterly irrelevant, sense), but instead by the way it's worded -- "blooming" seems to be too lively, even if, by interpretation, it means youth, beauty revealed, virginal sex. I don't have any alternatives to offer, however.

word hovering over the waters

A fine, and for me, very relevant theological point: was it not the Spirit that hovered over the waters, and not the Word? And the poem overall does not seem to be structured according to a subtle revelation of the trinity. But to change "word" to "breath" or "wind" might make the sentence a little bit more nonsensical, considering one can write words with red ink, and the sentence's continuation -- still, the theology, even if it is more just a reference, is more crucial, I think.

that we might speak to stop
the descent of the knife.

So the mice figure that there is no "red word" -- savior, surely, but of what sort, either Messiah or Uncle, left (delightfully) unclear -- to stop "the descent of the knife" -- a return to the nursery rhyme, meaning most obviously death, but if taken to the whole 50 Shades author angle means, what, a tantrum? a public shaming? At this point, that angle might fall apart, but perhaps it's because I don't have as clear a grasp of what troubles that woman can really cause, aside from her literary "The Room" -- or perhaps a sequel? But hadn't she already finished her trilogy? Then again, Rowling is returning to Harry Potter...
Yes, that's certainly the knife, from that angle.
A quiet end to an overall quiet poem. A little too quiet for my taste -- took me a long, long time to get to this point, and along the way the delights of the references and such weren't enough to keep me so glued. And no answers, shades of answers, or annoying, unanswerable questions that could stand in for answers, too -- just a picture, or rather a short, somewhat blurry video, and all its associated musings, memories, shadows....Still, dissections always pleasure me, so thanks for the read!