Foxlight

	      legend has it that Foxes carry the aurora on the tip of their tails


I try to catch it, the light tipped at the end of your tail.

My clumsy trembling approach from behind

crackles a twig — 

	      swift and silent, you are gone.

This time, I hold on!

Get myself flung across the sky behind a new tree

blossoming green ghostly leaves in a wind storm.

You tunnel through the air as if it were ground.

I sit empty handed once again, an earthbound  crisscrossed jumble.

My bulk dropped off to dust, lost to the debris of 

forest floor.  

Jenny Bates, North Carolina. Member of Winston-Salem Writers. NC Poetry Society, NC Writers Network. Published books include, Coyote with Coffee (Catbird on the Yadkin Press, NC 2014). Visitations (Hermit Feathers Press, NC 2019). Slip (Hermit Feathers Press, NC 2020). Her newest collection, Where the Deer Sleep (Hermit Feathers Press, NC 2022). Known local animal whisperer to Donkeys, Coyotes and “Crow Folk.”