If They Should Meet When I’m Not Here
By: Chen Tong - Dec 01, 2021
For eighteen months we came to learn
Together as a pair
That each was safe and simply learning
How we’d come to fare.
Pumpkin seeds and peanuts roasted
Seemed a decent meal.
I’d leave them out and wait to see
Just how the squirrel’d deal.
As time went on and we became
That pair I’d hoped we would,
She’d come to me but not quite feel
That all was well and good.
I’d wait so still and quiet,
Peanuts on the deck.
She’d take the long way ‘round
And sneak up on the peck.
And then one day the nuts by hand
So still upon the deck.
With fits and stops she snuck around
I didn’t need to beck.
The hand became my covered lap
I sat upon the seat.
She climbed and sat and took her fill
And held my gaze so sweet.
For eighteen months we’ve met most days
For early morning tea.
I know she comes for peanuts
And certainly not for me.
And yet I know I love her
As strange as that may sound.
We’ve gathered daily rain or shine,
Or snow she barely bounds.
So you can guess my upset when
In garden full and green
I rubbed my eyes in horror at
The creature I had seen.
I’d heard their presence was around
But I did not expect
To see a bobcat passing through
The yards that all connect.
My squirrel’d come and gone that day
And that was great relief.
But bobcats dine on squirrels I’d heard
Lest that was my belief.
If they should meet when I’m not here
I fear a fateful ending.
If they should meet when I’m not here.
The squirrel has no fending.
The squirrel doesn’t try to be
A squirrel in its time.
The squirrel simply is a squirrel
That’s its paradigm.
The bobcat too a creature fine
That walks the bobcat path.
And if it crosses with my love
I fear its hungry wrath.
I saw it just the once
But that was quite enough.
I know my squirrel isn’t made
Of needed sterner stuff.
If they should meet when I’m not here
And she is slow at all
Her end will come so swiftly
And she will deathly fall.
She’s not the only one I see
Squirrels do abound
She’s not the only one to choose
There’s plenty more around.
Yet I know quite well that
Nature doesn’t care.
If bobcats want to eat
A squirrel’s tasty fare.
Absent predators land and air
A squirrel’s life can last.
Fifteen years is not too long
So long as they move fast.
My hope is that my love will be
As nimble as can be
And stay with me for all that time,
For peanuts and for me.
Patience over months had worked
A friendship had begun.
Simple needs for food and friends
And we had found our one.
If I should go before my love
And take my final breath,
Who will care for her each day
If I fall prey to bobcat death?
A silly thought and not worth much
As I think about it now.
Nature doesn’t need the help
Or us to tell it how.
It is the way of things that
We shall have our turn.
And when that turn is taken
The rest is no concern.
But if that bobcat death should come
To her and not to me
I will lose a friend with whom
I share my morning tea.
If they should meet when I’m not here
And bobcat death comes fast
I’ll find the patience and the nuts
To help me move on past.
Another creature to befriend
And make the peanuts last.
A bobcat death awaits us all
The squirrel’s not alone.
We share a path as time allows
And then we have our own.
If they should meet when I’m not here
I will not likely know
But if I drink my tea alone
My mornings will be low.
If they should meet when I’m not here
And I must be alone
I’ll lift my cup and offer thanks
For my squirrel to have known.