Cat on the Mountain
Editor’s Note: Bob Perschel speaks passionately about many topics, from good and careful forest management to wilderness and its importance. This poem, along with pieces in this issue by Jamie Sayen and John Davis, invites us to think about a future landscape that can hold predators like wolves and mountain lions. Bob is currently preparing to publish a chapbook of poems, Numinosity. We will tell you more when that is published. – Liz Thompson
Catamount, Mountain Lion
Cougar, Panther
Reality or myth?
Extinct?
Or living here, now?
Let the experts debate
I will call you what I will
“Ghost in the woods”
And have it all my way
You are the shadow by the brook
The voice in the thunder
Of a passing storm
My hair stands on end
And I grow wilder every day
The broken snow at cabin’s edge
Was first
Then in spring matted grass and
Damp tracks full of water
That moved closer to my door
Something watched me once
By the hemlocks
Now I notice my lawn has shrunk
With each weekly mowing I stop
One pass shorter
Until the vines have touched the patio
And stretched their fingers toward me
Yesterday, I found a feather on the back step
And before that it was
Bits of fur, birds’ eggs
And round stones from the brook
Today I woke to scratching at my door
And found a spider’s web
Unbroken, still wet with morning dew
And so tonight
When the moon rises full
I will leave my clothes in the garden
And rubbing last year’s leaves over my body
Walk scentless into my woodsy dreams
Mountain lion tracks on a frozen stream in Wyoming. Photo © Jonah Evans www.naturetracking.com
Robert (Bob) Perschel joined the New England Forestry Foundation in April 2012 and retired in 2024. In his 40 years as an environmental professional, he has worked on forestry, large landscape conservation, and wilderness issues. Bob worked for the forest industry before establishing his own forestry consulting business and founding the Land Ethic Institute. He then worked in leadership positions for The Wilderness Society and Forest Stewards Guild. Bob has a master’s degree in forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a psychology degree from Yale College.