“The Groundhog”
Richard Eberhart
In June, amid the golden fields,
I saw a groundhog lying dead.
Dead lay he; my senses shook,
And mind outshot our naked frailty.
There lowly in the vigorous summer
His form began its senseless change,
And made my senses waver dim
Seeing nature ferocious in him.
Inspecting close maggots’ might
And seething cauldron of his being,
Half with loathing, half with a strange love,
I poked him with an angry stick.
The fever arose, became a flame
And Vigour circumscribed the skies,
Immense energy in the sun,
And through my frame a sunless trembling.
My stick had done nor good nor harm.
Then stood I silent in the day
Watching the object, as before;
And kept my reverence for knowledge
Trying for control, to be still,
To quell the passion of the blood;
Until I had bent down on my knees
Praying for joy in the sight of decay.
And so I left; and I returned
In Autumn strict of eye, to see
The sap gone out of the groundhog,
But the bony sodden hulk remained
But the year had lost its meaning,
And in intellectual chains
I lost both love and loathing,
Mured up in the wall of wisdom.
Another summer took the fields again
Massive and burning, full of life,
But when I chanced upon the spot
There was only a little hair left,
And bones bleaching in the sunlight
Beautiful as architecture;
I watched them like a geometer,
And cut a walking stick from a birch.
It has been three years, now.
There is no sign of the groundhog.
I stood there in the whirling summer,
My hand capped a withered heart,
And thought of China and of Greece,
Of Alexander in his tent;
Of Montaigne in his tower,
Of Saint Theresa in her wild lament.
Maverick Mist 
Semplicemente buona giornata ๐
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Semplicemente bello. Grazie. ๐
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Fabulosity!
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Thanks Rob. ๐
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You are quite welcome. And, just so you know, I don’t throw fabulosity around lightly. I think I created that word, so when I use it, I mean it wholeheartedly (I did not invent that word, however)
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Amazing
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Thank you Miriam. ๐
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So cute!
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I try, thanks. ๐
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What a cutie, Maverick. Well caught! ๐
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Thanks Carolyn. Didn’t have a groundhog so used a prairie dog. ๐
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Thought he was a bit skinny!
We don’t have either in Australia; so I wouldn’t have been any the wiser, really.
He’s still a real cutie, though! ๐
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He’s a cute fellow, although his predictions are a bit of hit and miss ๐
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Kind of like a real weatherman. ๐
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Are you sure that’s a groundhog? It doesn’t look like the ones in my backyard. And they wouldn’t approve of a poem that starts with a dead groundhog. ๐
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Playing the part of Groundhog is Prairie Dog. ๐
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