Catharsis

[rowens]

A fox came out of the woods,
its fur was dark, but loud and obnoxious.
In the silent way of foxes,
it said:
"Life is a losing battle
against death."

Animals only speak platitudes.
I spent 15 years in a cinder block shack,
governed by raccoon;
their eyes glowed when they looked straight at you,
unlike people.

They see right to the heart of things,
they're not afraid of repeating what's obvious...but final.

A disabled kid from one of the houses by the edge of the woods
came by one afternoon, burning leaves with a lighter
and throwing them at the shack trying to burn it down;
but the blocks wouldn't burn that way.

Besides, he was scared of the raccoon,
and ran when he saw their eyes.

Later when I'd moved out of the woods,
and that fox silently spoke to me,
I didn't know the mentally disabled boy had joined the military
and his one-armed brother was somewhere dying of cancer.

Now I know.

[rowens]

It just meant that even though the fox's fur was dark, it was still a bit too much for the one talking. Painful. Offensive to the senses.

And the one talking never exposes who or what it is. Or if it was in the woods all those years against its will.

It could be some aspect of the fox talking, or a person that spent many years among animals, or a merging of things. A merging of things would go well with my experiments in "generic relationships" I've been conducting down in the bowels of this site.

[cidermaid]

I can see how fur can be obnoxious....my dog rolls in fox and badger shit all the time and her fur is highly obnoxious. (but I don't think that is what was on the table here). I had taken it to mean that the fur of the fox was what was reported as speaking (by its looks) spoken by a narator who had lived with raccons...but i could be wrong.

Hi Rowen!

I can understand the idea of the fox being dark in persona - an animal of stealth and intrigue, whilst they manage to shout and boast in terms of what thier coat says in the animal kingdom....I'm surprised you did not add a comment about the blatant arrogance of the following tail with an white beacon on the end of it.

Poeticaly speaking it felt more like prose than a poem as such but I enjoyed it.
AJ.

[QuietAstronomer]

Some deep metaphorical commentary here.
The fox and the disabled boy and the raccoon mixed well.
On whole, the piece was a 'two reader' for me to absorb.
Nicely done.