Home Security Poem by Ernest Hilbert

Quick with fear, panic for things that can be lost,
You view a violent shadow, cracked by sun,
Something that follows you, but not too close.
You might catch it peering through faint frost-
Rinked windows and run for your household gun.
You might trail it with mob and open noose,
But it escapes, if it were ever there,
Sunk like a boulder rolled in a lake, or
Swift disappearance of a peregrine,
Fast glint of cat's eyes in an alley, deer
Vanishing into yellow grass, the blur
Of bats on a smoky dusk porch, flash of fin,
Rising then swiftly sinking in a sea,
Always nearing thing you will never see.