the cat left you on the walk
not a wound or drop of scarlet on your soft gray suit of fur
O mole
as if you’d emerged into the light, swooned at the sun’s intensity
and died
why did you leave your kingdom of the underworld,
O mole
with its damp cool tunnels in soft earth teeming with worms, beetles,
opulent grubs and nematodes?
did you search for love or death? what restless yearning led you
to the world above?
did your little heart, O mole
long for an amorous encounter with another blind and solitary soul?
planting you back into the soil, trowel in hand I think
no more traps or poison for you and your kind,
O mole,
be overlord of your dark kingdom ― till my land with burrows and passages
reign long in your elegant glossy robes
let no cats, owls, hawks your joy disturb
I’ll listen with ear to grass
to hear your scuffled digging as you pass
O mole
© GL Magill 2021
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