BLACK ON BLACK

Last night, as I was driving home after dropping Alex at the show, I became aware of something in the ditch by the side of the road. I didn't see it at first, but gradually a shape detached itself from the inky blackness and sped across the road through the path of my headlights. It was blacker than the asphalt and almost without definition, as if a shadow were moving. By its robust silhouette, I could see that it couldn't be a cat. By its athleticism, it couldn't be a porcupine. It was a fisher, out on a night hunt through the scrubby bush.