While I sleep

While I sleep

The Badger recreates her world in mine.

Prevented by barriers placed on her pathways,

She makes new problems of maintenance for me.

Thwarted only by pliable plastics

Her paws shift wood and brick and flint,

Shoulders prise open fences;

Thin green screening mesh

And bin liners of leaf mould are ignored.

She grunts in my sleep while, undisturbed,

I dream of hares and tortoises.