(For John and Tina Selley)
Bushy tailed the red vixen in her trust
Returns each year
Giving birth and raising young.
Cubs bright-eyed and boisterous
Full of fun playing on the lawn
Guarded by the wary vixen
As she looks at human friends
Watching from a kitchen window.
She trusts the humans living here
Knowing in the back garden
Within her Den below the shed
Her young are safe from foxhounds
And she abides as valued family friend.
She has no terror here of Man's cruelty
And when Summer ends
Goes away with young all safely raised.
Note: After returning for five years the vixen's cubs were poisoned by a neighbour. She has not returned since.
Colin Ian Jeffery
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/foxes-in-the-garden/
