The Undeniable Pressure of Existence
The Undeniable Pressure of Existence
by Patricia Fargnoli
I saw the fox running by the side of the road
past the turned-away brick faces of the condominiums
past the Citco gas station with its line of cars and trucks
and he ran, limping, gaunt, matted dull haired
past Jim’s Pizza, past the Wash-O-Mat,
past the Thai Garden, his sides heaving like bellows
and he kept running to where the interstate
crossed the state road and he reached it and he ran on
under the underpass and beyond it past the perfect
rows of split-levels, their identical driveways
their brookless and forestless yards,
and from my moving car, I watched him,
helpless to do anything to help him, certain he was beyond
any aid, any desire to save him, and he ran loping on,
far out of his element, sick, panting, starving,
his eyes fixed on some point ahead of him,
some possible salvation
in all this hopelessness, that only he could see.
Fine poem. The fox represents the wildness of nature, the facades and franchises the constraints of civilization exerting “undeniable pressure” on all “existence,” including ours. I see a glimmer of hope in the ending: the fox can see a “salvation” that we can’t, which maybe doesn’t include us, the victimizers who are also victims.