Animus, Anima
While walking the railroad tracks
Head down to gleen and claim aluminum oddities
And rusty bolts, a child’s wonder yet on me
Though old, and not a care
To bind me in the world,
I saw a red fox lanky, skinny
Scared and mean to see me.
Stopped as we wanted to crash
And weaved around me, crossed the tracks
In his own way, dainty but fast,
And loped off guilty, as if he’d
Stolen a chicken or a golden egg.
I thought what? dog? no. cat? no. what?
A rodent in his mouth, probably a mole.
He must have been lost in thought too,
To come so close,
He must have been pained, alert, half-starved.
50 yards off now and fading, a determined trot,
Slid under a fence, in the midst of horses,
Nevermore to see beyond pitched ground
A low rise at the brink of pastureland.
Would he cross the field,
To the woods and brook beyond,
Where hobos are drinking coffee, startle them too,
Back out of sad reveries of decay,
Into Wonder, and give them a story to tell?
And then the woman soul embraced me full.
She’s taking food to her kits in some
Warm musk hole.
A mother’s tender Love, dodging
Indifference, a lower grade of men,
To champion life in the new risen morning.
The sun in my eyes sight was lavish.
