I ran again yesterday
along the old tracks and railway line
I watched my feet go like metronomes
pound pound pound
breathe in
pound pound
out
I saw a doctor friend who said
I am no hero
but you’re amazing
I thought
as she ran home to her children
and I ran on
just to waste some time
A leveret
about two months old
flushed from the hedgerow
by my crazed and delerious pup
she ran
straight for me
and I watched in amazement
and wondered
when is she going to notice?
Right by me,
so close that in slow motion
I could have picked her up
she clocked
and swerved
chased by Pup and me yelling
to a deaf-eared maniac
Mother Hare watched the whole sorry chase
as Baby leapt into a hedge and escaped
Pup came back and passed
straight to where Mother
sauntered through into her field
and she waited
Pup gave up,
found some sheep shit to gnaw
I stood and watched:
Mother had three more babies
serene
safe
they came out from under a little shack
lolloping
smelling the air
chased leveret trusted to come back
in her own time
I suppose
Then two rabbits appeared
tiny
delicate
and my inner kid
wanted one to hold and stroke
not this noisy
boistrous
wild creature-chasing
idiot dog
who eats sheep crap
and then comes up for a kiss
The horror of it
I ran on and found
where the apple fairies live
through a wrought iron gate
(iron will keep them in,
the Victorians thought that
but now we know that those who
wealded the iron
wanted dominion over
those whose protection was bronze and stone
and rose and hawthorn)
an orchard bewalled
and secret
I climbed the wall and
wrenched my shoulder
sorry, I won’t try to look in again
I apologised to them
as you should when they play a trick
to teach you a lesson
the pain left
and I breathed a sigh of gratitude
remembering to ask permission
always
but especially at Beltane
when the veil is thin
but the Elementals
are everywhere
Doctor
hare
fairy
apple
feet
breath
shoulder
crazed dog
I need no more proof
Nwyfre 
Oh my! I love this, first of all, and secondly I wonder who I offended yesterday to take such a fall!?! I’ll go out right now and apologize–I was only climbing my own front steps, and meant no harm…
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Perhaps we have to ask permission for everything, in gratitude of the non-human world upon which we lead our assumptive lives?
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And what is funny is that I KNOW to practice that. I speak to the elementals, the nature beings, the hidden folk, all the time. I’ve done blessings for my thresholds, in and out of the house (but apparently not the steps!)…I leave offerings. I slipped up. Then I slipped.
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Don’t we all! I’ve just edited the poem to reflect something that I knew intuitively but has been pointed out: iron is not a fairy’s enemy, rather a tool to create a sense of ‘other’.
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I think I may have realized that too! One year on my birthday I took my customary “compass readings” walk, which I do on my birthday and New Year’s Day, no matter what (only missed one, and I really felt it). That day my forest gifted me with a pair of amazing deer bones, all crusted with calciferous concretions; it must have been terribly painful, and given my arthritis, it seemed fitting. I made one of them into the handle for a beautiful knife that has always felt blest by the fae.
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