I stare at Fox and,
He stares at me.
Fox, with bright, bright eye like polished stone
And wet nose, and silken fur, and tiny feet,
And breath that breathes without ever a sound.
My eyes of dusky brown stare curiously; Fox’s with sharp attention, his pointed ears alert to the sound of dogs baying.
My breath goes in and out and in and out and moves the grass before my face; Fox’s silently draws his belly up to his lean body and then down, never does the spider web before his nose quiver.
My hands shake and tremble in the dirt, stirring up the black ants; Fox’s nimble paws can leap like a cat’s and land like a mouse’s, I have seen it before, but yet they are quiet and still now.
My nose is tickled by the grass and I sneeze.
In the moment my eyes were closed Fox disappeared, as if he never was.
I blink again, but he is really gone.
Magic Fox.
I get up, brush the stinging ants and clinging sand, and look for him, but never a mark was there in the dewy grass where his feet pressed. Far off on a hill he looks back at me, I know it, but cannot see him.
I
Wonder if he laughs at me.
Wonder if he wonders back at what he saw.
Wonder if it all was nothing at all.
Fox.
Red Fox.
Magic Fox.
I laugh.
