surprise at the chicken house

Wild Thing

last week I found an unfinished tunnel by the hen house

larger than a mole would make;

I gathered rocks from the dry creek bed

to cover the hole, to thwart the invader.

Last night, late from hearing Wendell Berry,

I strode out to shut the chickens.

It was pitch

at the corner of fence and house

where the tunnel mouth had gaped.

But I thought a hen huddled

and I reached out to retrieve her

but my fingers grazed coarse fur,

so I bent down to peer closer: opossum!

I repelled, disgusted, yet slowly delighted,

I had just touched a wild thing.

11/23/13

mhn