The Old Tomten and the Fox

Rust and fleas are
Chainmail links the colour
Of dried blood
As the hungry fox scrapes
Up against the wire of the chicken coop.

Snowflakes that fall are not alone
But lonely they melt
Drowning in the beard of the old Tomten
Whose rheumatic eyes watch through the dark.

Steamy waits the bowl of porridge,
Thick with milk and sugar
Not thin and flaked with rust like the cold sly fox.
Steam condensing on the doorstep tells a story.

Red and white and cream and grey
Stalk the night away in combat
Like snowflakes, never the twain the same,
Tomten guarding, fox advancing.

Silver is gilded the treetop,
The farm house chimney smoke,
The lonley eyelids of the old Tomten
And the chainmail fur of the fox.

Run, attack, it's over, stop!
The chickens are snoring, unaware
The old Tomten raises his hand to strike
A savage warrier with painted cheek
- But the fox will starve tonight.

The old Tomten beats his drum
A call the fox is not afraid of
As he pads through the snow
Leaving trails of pawprints

Delicate as blood drops
To the cold stone doorstep
Where the ol Tomten balances on thin legs,
Smoke curling upwards warms the whiskers of the chainmail fox.

Both drink, the Tomten first
Then with urgent and mistrusting sips,
Fox dips his tongue into the steaming cup
Ghosts lie low as the two faces warm together.

The fox drags his full belly through the snow
Away from the farm where the chickens coo
The shadow of a spider cartwheels up the wall
And in the silver moonlight, the old Tomten smiles.

Hopeful.

This poem is a homage to the poem 'Bone Mother' by Holly Black, one of my favourite authors. It is based on an old Swedish children's story, 'The Tomten and the Fox' by Astrid Lindgren. I couldn't find a retelling on the web so I found some info on the Tomten on our old friend Wikipedia.
Bare lovage mates. xx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomten
http://www.endicott-studio.com/cofhs/chBoneMother.html