Foxes

 

Deep in the ferns they are creeping, their sweeping

tails setting swaying the ferns as they crawl,

little red foxes, an army of redcoats,

elegant-eared and cunningly small,

like rubies half-hid by a billowing shawl.

Deep in the ferns underneath the green forest,

on slender white ankles, with button-black eyes,

they swarm, and we catch just a glimpse in the half-light,

and hear through the thicket the witty wild cries

of those delicate, flashing, sanguineous spies.