BADGER

Shaggy digger, trundler, snuffler;
trufflehunter of the deep wild wood—
daylight narcoleptic,
we keep on seeing you squashed,
and wonder how your cubs survive
when you don’t come home to ground.
We once spread honey and digestives
on leaves and twigs around a sett,
went away, crept back,
settled downwind, itchy, quiet.
Waited long for you to come out,
push a stripy snout into falling light.

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