When Theresa May, the UK’s Conservative Prime Minister, called an election for June 2017, her manifesto included an opportunity to repeal New Labour’s ban on fox hunting. The Conservatives had expected to increase their majority, which would have eased May’s ability to push through Brexit. Instead they lost it.
I came running. I’d heard
them earlier of course
the bugles, the hounds, the quads
and all the tall king’s horses.
But now, suddenly,
here they were
yards away
in the public park where lovers meet
and our children play.
And I arrived at that precise moment
everyone talks about
when the fox stands
at the last of itself
its lust and pride all used up
and now there is nothing
but fangs to undergo.
And the hounds crouch
back on their haunches
and just before they leap in
for gut and muscle
to rend and rip and nullify
they cease for a moment
their frenzy of sound.
And a few riders, having
just caught up, they
also pause and you can see
tongue slide along lip
and eye glitter in the wet
and silent ecstasy of this moment.
And suddenly I knew that here at last
we had come full
circle and stopped
and as a planet might stop
but then perforce will roll
backwards onto itself,
our nation had taken
back control.
Rogan Wolf
(the picture of the fox above has been taken from the website of the League against Cruel Sports. See : https://www.league.org.uk/fox-hunting)