At a Traffic Light

by Warren Baker

I look up
from my phone
to see a gray fox dart
across the road,
its black-tipped tail
sticking straight out,
running from the remains
of a meal scavenged
from garbage, a primeval
agenda set by a forebear
who crossed this
then-dirt road
with the warm body
of a Rhode Island Red
clenched in its jaw,
blood slick in its throat.
From henhouse
to woods it ran
beyond rifle range
of the farmer.
The light turns green.
My phone rings.
I dart ahead.

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Warren Baker is an assistant professor in the Professional Writing Program at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. A former journalist and copywriter, he holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. His poems appear in Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and Chocorua Review.