Four Little Foxes

When I was a kid at summer camp, someone posted this Lew Sarett poem on a corkboard by the mess hall door. I'd had a thing for foxes, ever since seeing the film, "Gone to Earth," with Jennifer Jones as the gypsy girl with a pet fox, so the poem really touched me.

Four Little Foxes

Speak gently, Spring, and make no sudden sound;

For in my windy valley yesterday I found

Newborn foxes squirming on the ground —

Speak gently.

Walk softly, March, forbear the bitter blow.

Her feet within a trap, her blood upon the snow,

The four little foxes saw their mother go —

Walk softly.

Go lightly, Spring, oh, give them no alarm;

As I covered them with boughs to shelter them from harm,

The thin blue foxes suckled at my arm —

Go lightly.

Step softly, March, with your rampant hurricane;

Nuzzling one another, and whimpering with pain,

The new little foxes are shivering in the rain —

Step softly.

By Lew Sarett