Poetry

Worms

The corpses
that littered the gutter
the day after a rain
always troubled me.

I had to walk through the carnage
on my way to school,
their curled pink bodies
turning brown in the sun.

I would begin a rescue operation
picking them up one by one
and laying them back in the grass.

I would do this
step by step
and yard by yard
until my panic rose,
and I realized that I couldn't save them all
and I was already late for trying.

I tried to walk past with eyes down
willing myself not to see them
and telling myself that I
was no guiltier
than the rest of the human race
who passed them by everyday.

Mother would scold me good naturedly
when I got home
and laugh as she told the neighbors
about her funny daughter
who taled to flowers
and rescude worms
She did not understand

I turned all of this
over in my mind
the other day
on coming upon a large earthworm
trying to cross a too-big-and-dangerous road.
Hoping nobody was watching,
I stopped, scooped it up
and carried it back to the grass.

Rachel Fox