Me and Mr Mole

I think PD has made me, amongst other things, a little obsessive. I start a jigsaw puzzle and cannot leave it alone until I have finished it. Well, I am a keen gardener and a couple of years ago I had a family of moles move in. Oh the angst! But, out of it came the following tale.

The vegetable garden, not just a place to grow

Vegetables and flowers to show,

But a place of endless activity.

A joy to watch in every corner

hard at work, flower and fauna

and underground where we cant see lives a gardener's adversary.

Squirrels, pigeons and cabbage white

are some of the garden residents that might

do damage in their daily task.

although I try, I just cannot pardon

the one who lives under my garden.

A request too much to ask.

Now I have become obsessed.

And find myself put to the test,

To catch this little creature

Who spends his nights and his days

In secret underground highways.

The elusive Talpa Europaea.

It's now become my daily chore

To try harder, do more and more

To achieve my ultimate goal.

I'm sure by now you've worked it out,

There can really be no doubt.

I must catch this European Grey Mole.

So, at the rising of the sun

will it pay off, this work I've done

In trying to catch this wily beast?

For in his run, a trap I've laid

and sure as that setting sun would fade,

Talpa Europaea will be deceased.

Lifting him out of the ground

Lying in my palm, I confess I found

A pretty little, handsome soul.

Myself now feeling somewhat sad

I had no choice, I really had

To end the life of this grey mole.

The feelings I had were bitter sweet,

Enjoying my victory, sad for his defeat,

But pleased with the result of all my toil.

Where there is one, there will be another

And before long I did discover

Those tell tale signs, a mound of soil.

Disaster strikes! I though I'd won.

But now it seems I've been undone.

Now must test this new foe's mettle.

Find the route that it takes.

Stop the damage that it makes.

I will not, cannot, let it settle.

So I say to mole number two,

The struggle begins between me and you.

As I set the trap deep in his run.

Clever, I see you've changed your route,

I'm on your case in hot pursuit.

Your time has come, your day is done.

My victory a short-lived narrative.

There's yet another relative

Careering through my vegetable patch.

How many there? How many more?

I've won the battle, but not the war.

An endless column of foes to catch?

I'm on his turf. He has the edge.

It's my turf too. I'm on the edge

Of getting this all out of proportion.

Starting to affect my mental state.

Get a grip, for goodness sake!

To myself I write this as a caution.

As I write this little rhyme

Its cathartic words will, in time,

Start to calm my disturbed soul.

Start to smile and start to reason,

It will end, like every season.

As I dig down through another hole.

Some battles you win, and some you lose.

And, of course, you don't get to choose.

Which ones that it will be.

So one of us will win the day,

Who it will be I cannot say,

We'll just have to wait and see.

There's been a contest between him and me,

This illusive mole who's number three.

Created for his place, oh nature's so clever.

And taking on this uninvited challenge

As above I will plan, and below he will scavenge.

Leave him be? The answer is, never!

So I go with my battle plan

The summer ending, see if I can

Still defeat this garden pest.

In tunnels deeper down below

Lay the trap that will finally show

His defeat when he leaves his nest.

The sun comes up, another day.

The dark of night does fade away.

I wear a smile, no longer a frown

As I give in, and admit I'm beat.

By a foe I will never meet.

But admire and hand to him the crown.

That change of thought, I wonder whether

In harmony we might live together.

Accept that he just wants to live.

And do what he does naturally.

Time for me to let him be.

Receive? Sometimes its better just to give.

So as you go my new found friend,

And I bring this poem to an end.

Pondering the journey as a whole

And to think that you have shown me

That we can live in harmony

You clever, European, grey mole.