A raccoon wanders the farm
in search of table scraps from a summer picnic
or at least some unguarded dog food
but the farmer is on to him this time
and the raccoon hears the crack of a .22
and a thud in the ground next to him
he runs up a tree
then another crack and this time the thud
finds it's mark and months later he
still hangs from his hind legs
from an upper branch
still wearing an angry face
frozen in the winter cold
limbs stiffly rocking in the breeze -
a warning to other would-be interlopers,
he performs his eternal role
in the farmer's
Vlad-the-Impaler approach
to varmint control.

A nine-banded ground squirrel
darts across the asphalt
in search of treasures on the other side
(I think he had nine bands I never counted 'em)
a low roar gets louder and higher in pitch
and he sees movement in his
peripheral vision but zigs instead of zags
then tire treads criss-cross
all nine of his bands
compelling him to contemplate his new situation
two-dimensionally
and offer up his best
Technicolor grin.

A squirrel finds warmth
in a brick chimney
on a cold winter day
he follows the warmth down
and discovers it's coming
from a narrow metal pipe
feeding into the chimney
he follows the pipe hoping it leads somewhere
because he can no longer turn around
or back out
the pipe turns downward
and he continues on
until he runs into a barrier
and can move neither forward
nor backward
and he complains bitterly
until a few inches below
his fuzzy, inverted
immobilized head
the gas water heater ignites.