I spied you making your way up

the trunk of the weeping crab apple,

along it’s slender branches

each node forking off to another, 

then through a tangled mess of flowers 

that reminded me it was Spring.

.

You scampered along the wooden balustrade

of the balcony, where the paint was peeling

and marked off the area like your own;

Nay, you pissed on it, every bit of the way up the roof

and then through the terminal foliage

down the trunk and on the grass again.

.

Encroaching upon my real estate,

weren’t you?

No negotiations with the realtor ,

no need to look up the MLS

and here you were, with the best view

merely by tracing a path through scent alone.

.

I realised what is mine is yours,

so you thought,

And what is yours is mine,

so I thought

And what is mine is mine,

we each thought.

Then it dawned upon me,

the fallacy of possession across the species.

.

.

.

The gray squirrel has many lessons to teach despite the amusement it provides. This poem is one of the many, featuring the way of the tao as seen in the animal world.

This poem has been featured in the Rising Phoenix Review

The Tao of the Gray Squirrel ~ on possession By Davina E. Solomon