To a Fox

A fox walked round these prison walls today,
Its tail much whiter than I could suppose.
The redness of its skin was seeped and washed
Throughout the spiky sleekness of its mass.
Its muzzle glistened with some tear-duct ooze.
Its carbon eyes were glazed with rank despair.
Its flanks recoiled with nerve-jolts just expelled
By some dank panic-courage of its brain.
Unearthed by mere men
(Those keepers of the terrestrial)
Dug-fox dog-fox
I knew it was you
It sniffed, then flinched, then shuddered, then it seemed
To spy on lost scenes seemingly imposed
Upon the impregnated swirls of dust.
It stiffened starchly with the shivered breeze.
A cocked ear shrugged its shoulder to a hunch.
A tongue as oiled as leather licked the air.
A back-leg thrust propelled it out of sight.
I could not hear or smell or taste or feel.
Put up by mere hounds
(Those slobbering slaves of the human state)
Red-fox fled-fox
Where did you go?
Tonight my mind will dream of it again
Inhabiting the ridges of its thoughts
And I shall hold the fox-reek in my nose
And touch the fox-saliva on my tongue.
My eyes will frame those so-far unglimpsed acts
That drove it under cover like a thief
And when the night wind shrivels into quiet
Its saturated bark will stroke my ears.
But tomorrow I shall wake
and
unpeeled by my will
it will not be there
And today I shall wake
and
unpeeled by my will
(That unworthy servant
Of a soiled peasant love)
you will not be there
Wild-fox child-fox
When will you come?
Heretical lover
Time you should come.