Lord of the Compost

He is in his element
his movements languid
his attitude self-assured
taking his time ambling
about in the familiarity
of backyards whose
gardeners value the use of
composters for kitchen waste
to be turned into the black
gold that growing things
flourish in. This is his
territory, free and wild
as a creature of nature
not like the hysterical
pampered little dogs
living in those houses
whose frantic barking
when they sight him
almost brings them to
collapse as he ignores
their presumption
that it is they
not he whose business
is conducted in the
richness of the compost
with its freshly-deposited
wealth of edible cast-offs.
The dogs will soon slink
back into the houses
and he will emerge
from under the garden shed
to claim what's his.