Night hunting

September's Writing Magazine sets an interesting exercise - to write a poem about things happening at night in the form of a terza rima. This is a strict format: four three line stanzas followed by a couplet in iambic pentameters, like a sonnet,  but with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc dad aa. I chose a rural theme for this poem. 


A shape appears in the silent moonlight
Slinks sly across the fields beyond the copse 
A flash of red disturbing black and white. 
The wispy clouds reveal a hunting fox
Intent on prey it scarcely makes a sound
Hunger drives it towards the farmer's stock. 
Reaching the coop it starts to circle round
Seeking a way to dispatch a sleeping hen 
Despite its need no entry can be found. 
As it begins its circuit once again
A guard dog barks; a torch shines bright
Across the yard.  All thought of prey forgotten
The fox freezes, crouches, takes sudden flight
A scarlet streak, back to the safe, dark night. 


Copyright Chris Auger 2020. All rights reserved. 


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