Taxidea taxus

Badger

Mark Lee

 

 

              In White Mountain Apache folklore,

              the badger carried darkness upon his back.

 

You carried darkness

Bundled like pieces of a broken dream

Obsidian edges in a sack

 

You are solitary

You carried great things

Of great weight upon your low flat back

 

Burrow deeply

Into earth deeply into thought

A respite from the slow heat of desert life

 

Your long black claws scrape against

Scrape through scrapping a way

Away from the desert's heat

 

Long after your musk is gone

Others will shelter in your den

Comfort born of your aggression

 

White

Stripe down your muscular back

Is this what Darkness left you when it left?

 

Thick fur over loose skin

The mask of Zorro and a pointed

Snout

 

Ornery

Gruff

Short

 

You are

Fearless

Of the Darkness

 

Fearless

Of the Thunder

Of the Mountain Lion

 

I hold in my hand your sun

Whitened skull Not a stitch of flesh

To cover your truth

 

Even now you bare your teeth

So that I must give in

Give in to your wish to remain

 

I place you back at the base of the cliff

Forever snarky and snarling

As the darkness sets down

 

 

~~~~~

Mark Lee is a bicycle mechanic and poet who lives in Tucson. He studied creative writing at the University of Arizona.