A Hare’s Breath by Joan Woods

Joan Woods is a prolific poet and a regular contributor to the Bass Coast Poetry Wall.

A HARE’S BREATH

I enter a farmyard

confident calm

a spiel off pat on my tongue

this killer document will

set me up for life.

Talk. Walk

away with his signature.

He smiles at me, a broad grin

meets me halfway to the gate

affable – fades

a cloud passes over his face

He shouts, ‘Bluey’

Hair stands stiff, Bluey charges

teeth gleam midst points of saliva

the gate clangs shut behind me

flimsy mortgage papers defend,

as Bluey lunges at my throat