Wednesday 3 December 2008

The Fox of Yellowstone by Janie Hoffman

I am impressed by this red fox
chewing on a chocolate bar wrapper
in the parking lot of Yellowstone.
He's long like a corgi but not so wide,
cute and compact, and two minivans
full of backpacks and children
also watch as the sun pulls down
the October day and we do not even think
about how we should scold the careless
tourist who left the candy wrapper because
we are more grateful than the fox
who has given up raising his eyes
to look at us. Calm, he chews
and licks and does not even squint
when we turn our headlights
and motors on and yellow rays
and untuned engines spill
into the night. We leave
him to his prize and privacy
as we need to chase down
our own food and hotels.
He never looks up and fades
away in our rear view mirrors,
dignified red banner licking
chocolate off foil.




Janie Hoffman

5 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

Janie says:

I read and write a lot of poetry and experiment with many genres. My work has been published in over forty journals, including elimae, Eclectica and Mobius

Gordon Mason said...

Wow! This is so descriptive and the calmness of nature shines through.

Anonymous said...

i love the colors. the last one, the red banner licking is just great. i agree with the prior comments, the calmness shines.

Unknown said...

love the slice of life....nice!

sexy said...
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