The Bull Moose

Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain,

lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar,

stumbling through tamarack swamps,

came the bull moose

to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture.

Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware

there was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle.

They, scenting the musk of death, seeing his great head

like the ritual mask of a blood god, moved to the other end

of the field, and waited.

The neighbours heard of it, and by afternoon

cars lined the road. The children teased him

with alder switches and he gazed at them

like an old, tolerant collie. The woman asked

if he could have escaped from a Fair.

The oldest man in the parish remembered seeing

a gelded moose yoked with an ox for plowing.

The young men snickered and tried to pour beer

down his throat, while their girl friends took their pictures.

And the bull moose let them stroke his tick-ravaged flanks,

let them pry open his jaws with bottles, let a giggling girl

plant a little purple cap

of thistles on his head.

When the wardens came, everyone agreed it was a shame

to shoot anything so shaggy and cuddlesome.

He looked like the kind of pet

women put to bed with their sons.

So they held their fire. But just as the sun dropped in the river

the bull moose gathered his strength

like a scaffolded king, straightened and lifted his horns

so that even the wardens backed away as they raised their rifles.

When he roared, people ran to their cars. All the young men

leaned on their automobile horns as he toppled.

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Poems in English 

• Total Recount by Pamela Griffiths by Poetry In English
• To a Beloved Child by Patrick Pearse by Poetry In English
• The Uses of the Eye by Paul Blackburn by Poetry In English
• The Undeniable Pressure of Existence by Patricia Fargnoli by Poetry In English
• The Triumph Of Achilles by Paul Celan by Poetry In English
• The Sea and the Shadow by Paul Blackburn by Poetry In English
• The Rising and Falling of Trees by Patricia Fargnoli by Poetry In English
• The One Night Stand : An Approach to the Bridge by Paul Blackburn by Poetry In English
• The Mother by Patrick Pearse by Poetry In English
• The Choice of Trees by P.J.Reed by Poetry In English
• The Café Filtre by Paul Blackburn by Poetry In English
• The Blue Guitar by P. K. Page by Poetry In English
• That Light by Paul Hostovsky by Poetry In English
• Teenager by Patrick Connors by Poetry In English
• Teasing by Pamela Griffiths by Poetry In English
• Summon Me by Walid Saba by Poetry In English
• Stony Grey Soil by Patrick Kavanagh by Poetry In English
• Spring Thing by Paul Blackburn by Poetry In English
• Single Traveller by P. K. Page by Poetry In English
• Shancoduff by Patrick Kavanagh by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

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Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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