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Stop Press: Caroline Carver is taking up
a Hawthornden
Fellowship in November 2007
published in Wolf Magazine,
2007
tooth and claw
there’s
a mouse outside he said
and
at once I was afraid for it
quivering
in the darkness
whiskers
wet with dew
like
me
fretting
about tomorrow
and
although the cat
was
still sleeping on my legs
I
knew he’d creep out before I was properly awake
medieval
hunts on his mind
and
I thought about ladies and knights and bishops and lords
with
their scalloped reins
admiring
their floaty robes in the lake’s reflection
as
they prepared to gallop to the very middle of the wood
which
would so quiet you would hear the slightest movement
even
a mouse with the best whiskers in Disneyland
and
I thought about trees
and
the way they wait for something to happen
the
breathy sighs of the wind
strange
silences
I
remembered how in winter
snow
lies thick in the forest
except
for the melted patches
around
the base of each tree
to
show they’re still thinking
although
the sap has stopped running
because
it’s so cold
and
I thought of tiny tracks in the snow
and
the cry of wolves
rex
I said
I
must stop before you send owls
soon
there’ll be drops of fresh blood in the snow
but
he’d gone
closing
the window behind him
Caroline Carver
(horse
under water has been
moved to 'more poems' page)
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