What I like in this one is the specificity of the details, the conciseness of the narrative, and the way in which "old walls" becomes such good shorthand for the racial and social divide between the speaker and the "he" of the poem. What I am missing is any real sense of the speaker, except as a white hunter, or his attitude toward the "he." So it's a vivid and memorable anecdote, but I keep wondering "Why are you telling me this?"

Susan

A little touch up would make this more easily understoood. I spent two days puzzling over the felt-hat black before I realized black referred to a person of color. I spent three days wondering why he laid supper down and then went off into the brush to skin it and stew it and presumably eat it by himself, though 18 squirrels/birds seems like a lot of food for one person. Then I realized he "laid" supper down with the .22. I would have said he "brought" it down, and I would have had him slip off home with the game to skin and stew it so he could feed his 12 kids.

Carol