A tanka for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday challenge.
We’re bracing ourselves for our first run in with the hunters. There’s a battue going on in the woods that border our land. I don’t know what they’re after, but they have a lot of dogs and they’re doing a deal of yelling. Last night there was something large crashing about in the trees by the stream so it could be wild boar. If they come charging across our land we’re going to have to confront them.
Morning mist drips moist,
hounds unseen in the thickets,
baying informers.
I watch shapes form and dissolve,
hoping fleet of foot escape.
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Yikes–good luck with the hunters. “Confronting” hunters sounds dangerous.
The image that your tanka conjures up is so vivid (well, vivid in the mist). 🙂
I am with Merril, sending you Good luck! And bravo for this Tanka!
Thank you! We made it without incident. They must have done their killing over the hill.
So glad to hear although it did inspire wonderful poetry
I’ve no doubt they’ll be back.
They are dangerous because they have guns and they think they are in the right. Even though they can’t cross property without permission in the normal run of butchery, they can if they claim to be after ‘vermin’ which includes foxes and wild boar. Then you just have to get out of the way.
It sounds scary and dangerous. I hope they decide to go elsewhere!
The boar or whatever it was decided to lead them away from us thank goodness. I’m sure we’d have provoked a diplomatic incident if it had trotted over our land.
Good luck Jane and take care!
I’m still here 🙂 They went off up the hill over the stream. No doubt they caught something but thankfully I didn’t have to be there when they did.
Wow! I didn’t know guns were allowed in the U.K. That would be quite scary to have men hunting on your land. Jane, your Tanka is gorgeous. You capture your thoughts at the fear of the hunters in such a way, that I hope the poor boar gets away! ❤
It’s not the UK here, Colleen. I’m in France, but like the UK you can have a gun if you have a licence. There are hunters the world over, and they all have guns. When they organize a hunt, it’s on land that belongs to hunt sympathizers, but if they are after ‘vermin’ they can traipse anywhere they like. I find it scary and what they call vermin is just wildlife trying to live.
Whew! I didn’t realize you were in France. That’s pretty cool! ❤
How true, “wildlife trying to live”, makes me mad, I’d have gone for a confrontation!!!
It didn’t come to that, fortunately. I’m a coward. But I’m sure there’s going to have to be a quiet stating of positions before long.
Be careful what ever happens…,
I’m trying to keep a low profile.
Just stay safe!
and out of range…
A student whim that ended up becoming a lifetime commitment 🙂
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Thanks Michael 🙂
Sounds scary Jane. Glad you made it through without incident. Your tanka wraps it up nicely. I didn’t realize you were in France either. I guess this is a problem all over.
Thank you 🙂 It’s certainly a tradition that goes back centuries all over the world. Men have always enjoyed killing things and if they are allowed, they probably always will. There’s going to be shooting for months now, and for some critters the season never closes.
I really worry about stray bullets with that whole mess. Stay safe..have a good weekend.
Thanks! Me too—if they sound close, we stay inside.
Reblogged this on Mick E Talbot Poems and commented:
The law must be changed!!!!
Thanks Mick. Lots of things should be changed, like not fencing animal populations in so that they get sickly and give the hunters the excuse that they are only culling the weak elements. I don’t understand why fields with nothing growing in them need protecting. We have the whole earth carved up for our use, and we waste so much of what we produce while depriving wildlife the right to any of it. Our whole system of agriculture needs looking at.