Red Fox

Red fox

Body lies in a lay-by

Hit in the small hours

No doubt

Like the birds

And rodents

In numbers hard to imagine

Red fox

Just looks like she is sleeping

As any dog beside the fire

A pleasant expression

In her face I see my own

I see those I love

Those I do not know

Gone

In a moment passing

Like the blast at Pompeii

Statues

Left in sand

Or stone

And maybe I’ve witnessed the end of time

Of all things

Of us

An explosion so big

So confused

That the beginning and the end

Became a tangle of possible worlds

Folding back on each other

No grid, no spiral, no snake

But chaotic and fragmented

Living in a future

That was gone yesterday

Able to survive tomorrow

Unsung

As children

Red fox

Lost to this world

For no real reason

All things are settled

Into sleep

Never woken

We are the living dead

Here for moments only