Snowball

He came on the smile of a summer’s breeze.

He was so lost and helpless, so full of need.

I found him crying atop a red ant’s hill.

So afraid; so tiny just waiting to be mangled and killed.

I rush headstrong out across the neighbor’s yard.

And I reach the poor little thing before he’s hit by a car.

I picked him up and held him close to my beating heart.

I knew at once I would try to save him though I knew it would be hard.

He was maybe ten or eleven days old.

And despite the warm sun, he felt so cold.

I tried to put him with one of our nursing cats.

However all she did was look evil; hiss and spat.

So I fix him a safe place in a cage beneath our old shed.

I try to give him milk or else he would soon be dead.

I even gave him a most unoriginal name.

I called him snowball despite the weather in which he came.

Two days and two nights, 15ml of milk and I thought he would be alright.

However when I awoke this morning to give him breakfast so early and bright.

I found that my little snowball had passed from this life… and I cried.

I had a little service beneath an old chinaberry tree in the coolness of the shade.

Now he rest in peace with so many others that over the years I could not save.

Its such a shame, oh such a crying shame to see life just slip away;

All of life this…our most precious life; the greatest of gifts we could ever claim.

J. Allen Wilson © 6/4/08