Fox
By Alice Oswald
I heard a cough
as if a thief was there
outside my sleep
a sharp intake of air
a fox in her fox-fur
stepping across
the grass in her black gloves
barked at my house
just so abrupt and odd
the way she went
hungrily asking
in the heart's thick accent
in such serious sleepless
trespass she came
a woman with a man's voice
but no name
as if to say: it's midnight
and my life
is laid beneath my children
like gold leaf
Alice Oswald, "Fox" from Falling Awake. Copyright © 2016 by Alice Oswald. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc..
Source: Falling Awake (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016)