I see it, Max, & like the reference to not having this sight in your home country. But I think you can rid yourself of the first ‘wire’ in stanza 1? (given that it appears 3 time there)…
Doug
> On Aug 31, 2016, at 9:28 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> The Squirrel’s Granary
>
> Climbing fast, look -
> a squirrel braves the wire.
> The tall wire-mesh fence
> topped with barbed wire
>
> to deter all climbers
> circles the entire
> reservoir - higher
> than the fabled hippies
>
> high on rock music
> and whatever, who’d leave
> the lawn, mount the parapet,
> wade and swim till dawn.
>
> No more. This dry summer
> the water’s mostly gone.
> Only ducks for swimmers.
> A threatening warning sign.
>
> Crows cluster nearby. Just a
> squirrel nimble and silvery
> shimmies up as if barbed
> wire bore fruit or nuts.
>
> What’s it after? Near
> the parapet some lump
> of pleasing shape draws
> it down and along.
>
> Back it comes now, jaws
> clamped on whatever -
> a gap low down
> in the mesh lets it back -
>
> near me and my alerted
> Labrador. Grip that leash.
> Fall is in the air - where’s
> the squirrel’s granary -
>
> met in my home country
> only in poems? Our eyes trace
> the squirrel’s quick track
> into undergrowth and dark.
>
> [late August 2016, Volunteer Park,
> Capitol Hill, Seattle]
Douglas Barbour
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