All Winter Long the Slumbering Fox

By Ciaran McDermott

dreams of the bright red skulk
of summer, of a plumed flame
stalking the moon’s
soft-puddled silver, sweeter than milk,
tracking the scratch of fern,
the feathered dent of hill, lured
towards the musky pull
of bark, into a hissing
release of scat, into the canalled
inner moistness of the breathing earth,
as dense as a nest of eggs,
with a grin as wide as the green dawn

Audio recording of ‘All Winter Long the Slumbering Fox’, written and read by Ciaran McDermott

Ciaran McDermott

Ciaran McDermott grew up in rural Staffordshire but currently lives in Stirling, Scotland. His work has been published widely in journals and anthologies, and has appeared in Acumen, Poetry Birmingham, Dream
Catcher, Rust & Moth, Obsessed With Pipework, The Journal, ‘Short and Sweet’ (Soor Ploom Press) and ‘Sun-Tipped Pillars of Our Heart’ (Black Bough Poetry), among others. He was longlisted for the Erbacce Prize in 2021 and 2022, and longlisted for the Dai Fry award in 2022.

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Photo credit: Pratik Bisht