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 

• A New Broom by Witt Wittmann by Anglo File
• A Form Of Women by Robert Creely by Anglo File
• A Sonnet Occasioned by the Bad Weather Which Hindered the Sports at New-Market in January, 1616 by William Drummond by Anglo File
• A Little Te Deum Of The Commonplace by John Oxenham by Anglo File
• Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• I think it rains by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• Dedication From Moremi by Wole Soyinka by Anglo File
• As Like The Woman As You Can by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Thanksgiving by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• At Queensferry by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A New Song to an Old Tune by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Love By The Sea by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Late Lark Twitters From The Quiet Skies by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• A Dainty Thing’s The Villanelle by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Blithe Dreams Arise To Greet Us by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Beside The Idle Summer Sea by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Youth And Age by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Truisms by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of A Toyokuni Colour-Print by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley
• Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights by William Ernest Henley by William Ernest Henley

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