The Hairball and the Mouse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Cat from POETRY FOR CATS by Henry Beard

 

I chased a mouse beneath the stair, It went to ground, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it ran, my sight Could not follow it in its flight. I coughed a hairball in the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For though my sight is sharp and true, I saw not where that fur-bullet flew. Some time afterward, quite by chance, I spied them both in a single glance; For the mouse in a corner lay dead, A hairball lodged in his tiny head.