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Snail Mover

 

Every night down the side of Hamilton Avenue
when it rains
the snails try to cross
the sidewalk

I don't know why
cause there's nothing to eat out there
and it can't be too comfortable
but maybe that's why

The carnage is terrible
pedestrians clop along to the popping sound of crushing shells
like mouthfuls of ice being chewed

So I go down there and snail move

One by one I pick them up
each time slowly so that the snail has time to let go of the ground
and not get a sore belly
each one gets a scolding

get out of the street! what are you thinking?
it'll take you a damned year to get back to the grass from here!
how did you manage to get to be full-grown behaving like this?

They are beautiful and keep coming back
to huddle around the puddle of their squashed friends

And I move them again

Nobody knows, and I don't get paid
don't sit around thinking about snails
I move them as my little way of saying no
to all the people who have tried to break me

 

 

© Shelley Harrison
www.shelleyharrison.com
Kaleidosound™ Publishing