Biologists were stunned in 2024
after California ground squirrels were
captured on film killing
and eating voles,
a big surprise from this cousin
of our familiar lawn-worker,
burier of acorns, not
field mice,
but I remember well
walking on my block one day
and seeing a squirrel’s flattened body
in the street,
and one
persistent crow
coming to pick at it
every time traffic cleared.
Then, a week later, same quiet block,
I saw a crow’s body crushed
on the same stretch
of asphalt,
and a squirrel pushing down on it
with its forepaws, pulling up
black feathers and more
in its teeth.
Harrison Fisher has published twelve collections of poems, most recently Poematics of the Hyperbloody Real. In 2025, he has new work in Amsterdam Review, eMerge, Metachrosis, Panoplyzine, Trampoline, Uppagus, and several other magazines.