Position:Home>Poetry> What does Groundhog day mean to you?

His guts to the forest floor,
a single shot !.22 rifle
perched with an arch
on the husk of a cottonwood branch
he waits and watches!.

Twenty yards away a Groundhog tumbles
through the hot rock bottom
of a southern creek!.
He crawls ahead
using his knees to paddle
the distance
he's ten yards closer now
and hears the growl of dissent
from behind him!.
"Whatcha ya gunna do now, boy!?"
The woodsman is standing firm
on his rifle
the one his grandfather gave him
the stalk ground into the dirt
the barrel in trouble
the trigger buried
the torn boot holding his weapon down!.
"Well, if you don't get
your gahdamned boot
offa my gun,
I'm gunna kill ya!."
He raises his hidden pistol
from his waistband and sits up!.
The man with the boot drops his face
like water from a wooden cup
and slowly steps off the rifle!.
"I was just foolin'"
"Well, I ain't"

He watches as the man
slowly becomes the background
and he thinks about his children
and their hunger
and their innocence
and he turns and shoots,
the groundhog frozen in the heat
for a moment,
then fallen!.

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