Your love of my raspberries has resulted

in this late evening walk in headtorch,

to hedges of hazel and blackthorn,

far enough from home to foil ideas of return.

 

Aware of owls ripping through moonlight,

I kneel in damp fescue and sedge,

clutching this tilt trap of quantum uncertainty;

mouse or no mouse? that is the question.

 

The trap gate opens. You see me for the first time,

holding the moment in beads of black polished glass,

small body wedged, feet splayed, heart racing,

a quiver of tense, anticipating whiskers.

 

And in that instant, in that brief connection,

my doubts bubble. This is a good deed isn’t it?

This forced relocation; got to be a better solution

than back breaking death or slow poisoning.

 

Although I try to convince myself,

I believe you remain sceptical.

I am your nightmare; the one interrupting

your regular midnight feasting,

 

the one separating you from all your

blind, deaf and hairless babies,

the one from which you must flee in terror

the second the black plastic touches the ground.

 

But, unlike Mr. McGregor, as I stumble one mile

back through darkling woods, soft clart that I am,

I’m hoping the owls have an off day

and secretly, despite your fruit plundering,

 

I’d quite like to see you again.