Weasel

about an animal

a bite like hot charcoal

                  a nate full

                  of stolen baby teeth

that scythe off dried skin

                  ripped off like old wallpaper

                  the tearing of small birds

hidden under an early barn;

                  mice shake like alarm clocks

                  crying into cold straw;

you tap-dancer ! fast as light

                  as cruel as a broken tooth

                  all evil in a round eye.

                  

         

Reviews

[carol burgess romance]

We used to have a small hobby farm a few years ago and lost many a bird from a weasel bite....on the up side they are the best rodent catchers around....very good write

[John]

Nate, interesting word as is the tone of this piece. Humour and horror as the weasel goes about its business, doing what weasels do, naturally. Pity the poor mice shaking like alarm clocks in their straw, but we enjoy such a witty conceit, so the response is complicated. It may be a touch anthropomorphic to see evil in the weasel's eye. For my money, it's the panda bear that should be the object of our opprobrium - an evolutionary dead end which attracts vast resources so as to prevent its extinction. It's the weasel's bad luck that, unlike the panda, it just ain't a looker, and is burdened with such a dreadful sounding name.

[Onku Ghosh]

Wonderfully penned !!

[Cool Handless Luke]

I like your style of writing and the format and flow of this piece. i don't know if it's eliot or dickinson that it reminds me of or more of a less overbearing dylan thomas. at any rate this is a fine write!

[FJ Davis]

If I didn't dislike weasels before I read this piece, Leslie, I most assuredly do, now.
What a stark poetic portrait of a creature whose likability ranks on about the same level as rats!
Stunning work, my friend!

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Another sublime poem Leslie. Your descriptive pen is unparalleled and always a breathtaking read.

[Pete Langley]

What a beautiful portrait...captures the essence of the opportunist perfectly - both in nature and society. P.