I saw a muskrat in the park
chewing grasses with perfect attention
in a pool of sunlight that rendered gold
the tips of her glistening chestnut hair.
I’d seen her before
at just the end of the dark
swimming the shallow stream that
arteries the park –
just a smooth parting of the water,
then her endearing waddle
as she brought from the bank
the right twig, longer than herself
and fringed in new leaves.
Clasping it firmly in delicate jaws
she melted into the water and swam again
and with a flip disappeared
into a hole in the bank.
I was pleased to know she was there
going about her business,
and confident in her wisdom
to come out only before dawn,
before joggers and dog-walkers,
before skittish mothers could cry “RAT!”
to the park authorities in their ill-fitting green costumes.
Today she sits in the sun.
Civil and lovely.
Surely she deserves to sit in the sun?
Does she think people so kind?
Paulette Callen has returned to her home state of South Dakota in retirement, after 30+ years in New York City. Varying degrees of culture shock in both directions — but always, the space she returned to has been made home by a dog.