A Fox's Point Of View Poem by Elizabeth Middleton

The frozen snow crunched under he weight of my paws. Overhead, the grey clouds threatened to dropp a blistering snowfall, one of the last of the season. The South winds were blowing and the birds returning. The blue waters just past my hiding spot meant fish for the coming summer. I sat on the edge of a cliff peering over a small bolder, and watching the scene play out before me.
My family hid close by, waiting for my return with their breakfast. A hunter lay off to my side perusing his own prey. “Why does the white man hate me so? ” I wondered, “back when I was a cub, the dark humans were kind to me and my kind. Now, these white men come with guns, and tore my family apart. “ Previous to that same year, I had spied them in their own dens wearing the skins of my parents on their heads!
All I had wanted then was to live without the man of white. They had taken my pack along with my joy and light. Even with what little I had left, he lay there planning to take it all away. I was not going to allow that to happen again!
I jumped out of my spot and acted as if I was afraid of the sight of him! This got the chase started. This got him after me, but I wanted to test him and see how badly he wanted my skin! I ran straight for the white birds that had served me well many times before. They would make him dodge and duck until he got tired and finally, he would give up the chase. After I had thanked the birds for another victory, I had thought I was safe, but I was a fool.
Just behind the bush where my family remained hidden, lay a familiar ball went flying in my direction. I ducked just in time, but the white man’s ball go far. Black birds flew from the bush where the ball had come from. Another one sounded and had taken to the air, but this one wasn’t coming towards me. My friends, the white birds, grew fearful. They screeched and squawked before they flew away. I bolted to my family with my heart racing fast and furious! Was she still there? Were they alright?
I arrived at my den where my cubs all huddled shaken and frightened. My beautiful mate was no where to be seen.
I warmed them against my belly reassuring them with the same noises she used to make. I tried everything I knew, but nothing seemed to be able to calm them from the scene they had just witnessed. It was exactly the state I had been in when I had come home to an empty den, and later found my parents on the white men’s heads. Somehow, I would get her back! Somehow I would find her again! Somehow …