FEBRUARY SECOND

 

 The ground hog that lives underneath our shed:

If he’d come out today, would he have seen

His shadow and slipped back to where he’d been

These past few months, snug in his home-made bed,

Digesting all the flora that has fed

His ravenous and constant foraging?

Or was the sun behind a cloud, passing

Just when he wriggled out his sleepy head?

Had we made time to see him, we would know;

But we were as preoccupied as he

When he was nibbling on our garden rows.

Our day was spent desiring shadows cast

Before us in the sunlight, while his sleep

Absorbed his appetite through winter’s fast.