#2,479 Brock
Our resident town badger
has –
[perhaps]
come here
to die –
alongside dug soil
of fox diggings from those
years of lock-down –
alone
he’s laid a set to wither in
[according to our local vet
who lives opposite] –
I saw
it sitting quiet atop its hole
in last night’s gloom –
rush
of white on its forehead –
a
slow turn to me
[enough is
enough –
he said] –
A weigh
of pelt & age –
festooned in
ticks & fleas –
untouchable
until dead
[then shifted for
twenty-five quid for labs to
deduce any instances of TB
in his pile –
in East Sussex]