Muskrat

May 5
Muskrat
There’s a big old mangy muskrat
living on the shore of Carter Lake
right by the #2 Green
at Shoreline golf course.
Once called Saratoga Bend
on the Missouri River,
the oxbow lake is now about
a mile from the Missouri
and is part of the State of Iowa
even though it is on the west side
of the river.
The railroad tie retaining wall
on the lake side of the green has washed out a bit
and I looked down in the
empty space where the dirt used to be
and that old muskrat
was there again today.
I saw it near there last week.
He, well, maybe she, looked up at me
and then crawled through a gap in that retaining wall
down onto the 6 feet of sand and mud left
on the edges of the lake
where the water had receded a bit
over the last couple of weeks
and went about his/her business.
Being a muskrat is not a glamorous life, I imagine.
As long as you can find food
and not get eaten by a hawk or a fox
living on the inside shore of Carter Lake
on the edge of the golf course seems
like a pretty good gig for a muskrat.