Squirrel
Peril surrounds him, yet he
soldiers on snuffling for nuts,
the grass the cattails
about him. He pushes past
brown fallen crinkly leaves,
casting them aside without a second thought.
He finds a treasure more valuable than
entire caches of gold
and stuffs it in his mouth.
A challenger the size of a twelve-story building
lumbers too close. He throws his
tail into the air, making a question mark of it.
Then, as the leviathan clomps closer
our tiny friend arcs his body with
his leaps, darts up a tree, peers
from a branch — eyes so wide for being so small –
and chitters
a challenge.
His foolish opponent
sees his peril and walks on.
he chitters again, satisfied he’s vanquished his foe,
then munches on a nut.
Tags: Poetry