Seeing is Believing

Philip Nanton

 

You might doubt their existence

our brown hares are rarely seen.

Yet I’ve heard their bewitching

half-human early morning scream.

 

One evening as I cycled by, a hare

standing in a St Thomas lane

offered me a one-eyed stare.

 

                                          Stillness and camouflage its defence

 

                       Closer and closer I came

 

                                           Stillness and camouflage its defence

 

Bugger that, no way

it seemed to say

and showing me a burst of speed

took off

turned sharp left into a cane-field

and disappeared.

 

                                              I rolled on in third gear.

Philip Nanton was born in Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and currently lives in Barbados.  He has presented programmes for BBC radio, and his work has appeared in regional journals and literary magazines.  He is the editor of Remembering the Sea: An Introduction to Frank A. Collymore (2004) and the author of Island Voices: From St Christopher & The Barracudas (2014).