The Farmer's Fox

There was a farmer,

Tending to his stocks;

Of chickens, pigs, and cows,

When he came across a fox.

It was blind and weak and ill,

But it was vermin nonetheless,

Yet before he could kill it,

He heard a cry from the pest.

“How can I harm you?

I am too unfit to hunt.

I was born a sickly cub;

You shouldn’t fear a little runt?”

So the farmer let him live,

But the very next day,

All the hens were eaten,

Including the eggs they lay.

The farmer was ready,

To kill the fox now,

And found him in the pigsty,

With a fertile sow.

“Ask the pigs;

I was here all night.

Even then, me against coop?

Surely I’d lose that fight!

“I’d be pecked to death,

Against all those hens!

But your dogs though,

Best lock their dens.

“If it really was me,

They would have come,

But it sounds to me,

They think you’re dumb.

“Easily fooled,

That you’d never suspect,

That they’d be capable,

Of such disrespect!”

The farmer thought,

The ill fox could be right,

So he locked up the dogs,

All throughout the night.

He awoke in the morning,

And found the pigs dead.

Enraged he pinned the fox,

Aiming a gun for his head.

“Think, kind sir!

Think this all through!

Does any of this madness,

Make sense to you?

“I am small and slim,

No bigger than a lamb.

I have no way of feasting,

Upon your delicious ham.

“I am a meek creature,

And your sty was full,

Of pigs as fat and strong,

As a calf bull!

“Pigs are just as vicious,

And hungry for meat.

I’d be lucky to be maimed,

If I tried such a feat.

“But your farmhands,

They are the unsavoury type.

I saw them eye the swine;

Pork juicy and ripe.

“Where were they,

If I am to be blamed?

Drinking and eating,

Gloating unashamed.”

The farmer was unsure,

But anger got the better,

And cast them out,

To the elements and weather.

And when the farmer awoke,

To milk before the breaking dawn,

He found his cows shredded.

Across a carcass strewn lawn.

But before he could grab his gun,

And go on the hunt,

He found himself surrounded,

By a pack led by the runt.

“I said it wasn’t me,

I never told a lie.

But you should remember,

We foxes are sly.

“You’ve locked away your dogs,

You’ve sent away your hands,

And now no one will hear,

You scream across these lands.”

Where there is one,

No matter how ill,

There are always more,

Ready to have their fill.

#HI