The Critter Cascade Poem by David Welch

I was walking down a Vermont road
to stretch my legs and blow off stress,
stone walls flanked the hard, brown dirt,
half-obscured by dead leaves and grass.

When a fast rustling caught my ear,
I turned my eyes left to see,
exploding over the rock wall
came a flustered, frantic turkey.

He sprinted hard on spindly legs,
and it noud gulps gasped for breath,
then crossed the road and disappeared,
the cause for it not revealed yet.

Then suddenly, from the same place,
a majestic buck leapt in,
blowing hard, half-exhausted,
but the stag kept up the sprint.

Had he sent the turkey running?
This I thought as he bounded clear,
then I asked what had spooked him,
started the running of this deer?

Just them a large, robust black bear
streaked hectically onto the ground,
I froze in fear at this bruin,
he must've weighed three hundred pounds!

But this bear didn't notice me,
he panted hard and was afraid,
followed the buck into the woods,
what could cause this panicked race?

Suddenly a sprinting hunter
dashed out onto the dirt road,
big rifle there in his hands,
a threat that smart animals know.

But he kept running, half-shaking,
giving me not even a glance,
what, I say, could put to flight
a fully grown, well-armed man?

Next, in a burst of braying,
came the hunter's big draft horse,
his shoulders taller than I stand,
weighing two thousand pounds of more.

He was sweating profusely,
charging on with a heavy gait,
taking off after the hunter,
into the woods to make his escape.

I stood stunned and wondered
what could this all be about?
Then scurrying onto the road
came a tiny, harmless mouse.

If sniffed a bit, then disappeared
underneath some dead, brown leaves.
Had this rodent triggered the horse,
and started this whole crazy scene?

I just rolled my eyes at it,
Then kept walking on my way,
to think that such a tiny thing
could cause such a strange cascade…