Brentwood Veteran's Park

Following your footprints, Fox

You have already disappeared, so

Blackbird cautiously comes up to

Peck at the mouse beneath your Foot.

The tiny critter's tail is caught

In mid twitch, eyes bugged out, where

Can it run to, will it ever escape

Its captor's sharp ears and golden nose

More tracks, two big flat feet, two

With thumbs, find Raccoon turned

To watch the path, her fingers greedily

Stretching and pulling at a muddy crawfish

She looks for water, this dirt will never do

Today's rain promised puddles, but one is

Never around when she needs it

Coyote might find water first, his eyes

Are set on the distance, there, just over

The rise is a flicker of wings, a soft quack.

As the shape shifter, he becomes a blond

Cocker spaniel, named Song, and her

Master, Walter with melting chocolate eyes

A liquid smile and matching laughter

"The birds are over there, my dog always

Barks at them, but they never take flight."

They walk over the wind twisted green of

Spring new grass, towards the stake slim egret

Eating a ceramic fish. Coyote slinks behind

A low copse of bush, watching

A mid-landing Mallard, surprised to be caught

In the air, about to splash in a pond he keeps

Dreaming over and over again where it once was

And will be one more time after the hatching

In another place another time …

On a bench, lonely with his cane

Another man sits mumbling memories,

Hearing music and jet planes, bombs

And rapid gunfire, he barely feels

The tiny rain droplets falling on his

Battered hat. Behind him sits a stone

Made of sand, and a thousand wheels are

Speeding into a future he will never see

Will never understand, his footprints

Are here too, holding on to the fine line of now,

With the Sculptor's fingerprint between them.

The five bronze animals installed March 12 at Veteran's Park represent five animals indigenous to Brentwood: kit fox, raccoon, coyote, mallard duck and egret. The public art was created by Danville artist Willard Carmel and funded by a $23,500 donation from Braddock and Logan Homes.