Yes, snappy finish, Max. I liked the distinction too that a ferret might
better suit a single man. Perhaps someone Dickensian. As for you, don't, as
a friend used to advise, even think about it.
Bill
On Thursday, 14 January 2016, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Man and Ferret
> [Broadway, Capitol Hill, Sea
>
> There’s a quiet patch
> on our main drag
> beyond the shops,
> before the lively stretch
>
> (would-be boho
> Pine Street, no less) -
> that funeral home,
> long, blank and bland,
>
> facing college buildings
> with tall windows, few doors
> and wide brick ledges
> sloping sidewalk-wards
>
> to deter our homeless
> from sheltering there
> in the lee of the college.
> Here of a winter
>
> Sunday afternoon,
> as the farmers’ market
> stalls shut forlornly down,
> watch for the ferret man -
>
> he has his eye out for you,
> as his ferret darts keenly
> to and fro, to and fro
> along the ledge slope.
>
> Would you like to pet him?
> he’s totally gentle -
> and he’s already fed.
> I won’t hold him
>
> (I say), just touch
> that soft fur. I reach
> behind his ratty head.
> Yes, soft. Does he smell?
>
> Not much. With me
> he lives a clean life.
> My home country,
> I tell him, has a few
>
> as pets, and more
> as pests. Stoats too.
> Small native creatures
> are at risk from both.
>
> Safer to be on islands
> off the mainland,
> those natives - and
> the pesky predators swim!
>
> Don’t they race through
> rabbit warrens when
> uncaged, for the poacher’s
> winter rabbit stew?
>
> Would I like one like him
> to take home?
> I prevaricate.
> My wife seeing him
>
> might have a fit.
> He’s better provided
> with a single man
> whose attention
>
> is undivided.
> I see man and ferret
> in shared intimacy
> growing more alike.
>
> I could ask her,
> does she want a mouser?
> Ferrets, I suppose, are
> nature’s answer
>
> to smellier pests?
> Since he moved in
> no-one, I bet, has smelled
> anything but ferret.
>
> Whether pest-free
> or not, this may well be
> its main merit.
> I smell of dog, so does my flat.
>
> We share the same air.
> My wife greets me as we meet
> with a suspicious sniff:
> where has your hand just been?
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