The saucy, little squirrel

In the huge tree outside my window

Attacks each step through the great boughs

As if pursued by devils, a blur of fur.

Its precision is breathtaking.

 

It streaks like a russet-grey arrow

Flying along a branch

Right side up or upside down.

It stands on its hind legs, flashing its pale belly,

Stretching high for that twig with a tasty seed.

It hangs off a branch by a single paw,

Or its coiled tail,

Reaching far down for a nut below.

Down - down - down - DOWN -

And curling UP like an elastic band.

A tiny body in fluid motion!

 

It leaps from limb to limb

A shivering passage through the giant tree

Its weight so light, its force so deliberate.

Then it bolts head first down the trunk

Defying gravity.

 

It rarely sits

Except to peel a pod with dexterous claws

And ripping teeth

Dropping debris through the branches.

 

In the first light of morning

I slip from bed and spread the curtains

To catch the squirrel's early foraging.

Or, maybe - just its joy in the new dawn -

To be BUSY!

Winter is coming!

I smile, 'God bless, Little One.'

And my day is well begun.