For This Poem, There Needs to Be a Fox

 

For this poem, there needs to be

a fox, somewhere out in the country,
and my grandmother's garden:

sweet pea and peony, lilac and pinks
scenting the air

on sweet summer evenings. There

needs to be a girl in a soft blue cotton dress,

reading love letters, under the weeping willow,
a shiver of mixed

fear and delight at
whatever comes next.

For this poem, the girl is now a grandmother

herself, her letters all tucked in a box

under her bed, never read any more.
What came next deserved every shiver
until she moved on.

In this poem, a fox creeps out of the bush

from deep in the forest. It looks at her,

smiling, that young girl grown old,
then pounces back into
the radiant green,

and is gone.

For Shay's Word list, and the inspiration of The Garden by Moonlight by Amy Lowell. Shared with earthweal's open link.