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The woods late one
afternoon the smell
of sawdust heaps of broken
logs, the light
through cracks and chinks
aslant across my lap.
I waited with my breath
quiet half in fright.
A quiet chill began to move
among
the corners with a shadow
dusk and then
the night came in around me
and the sound
of dogs on gravel barking at
the men.

They walked along the driveway
with the bird,
fresh chopped and bled and
dangling by her feet.
I held my breath and
shivered in the dark
They passed quite close and
called me in to eat.

I hid there trying not
to see her dead,
Then slept, and later
woke up in my bed.

15 November 1976 English 224