- see your own picture - (about the work of an artist)

There were animals
killed on the road
- thousands of them! -
rabbits, rats, frogs and ducks,
sheep, blackbirds, and a red fox.

She took pictures,
some in black and white,
others, with the lively colors
of death.

Pics that looked morbid
almost sick,
as her friends told her,
although fascinated
by her passion,
her silence,
her determination.

I saw her work
and thought of another word
- compassion -
as literally,
she suffered with them.

In blood, she felt courage,
in stillness, she found peace,
in their faded eyes,
she saw her neglected childhood,
in their brutal death,
and gaping wounds,
she discovered the energy of despair
and the will to fight back.

I'm sure she must have named them all.
She blew up the pictures and
still lives surrounded
with the many faces of
animal-- death.

I do not judge her,
she's like a scared squirrel.

And, when I look around,
the humans I see
are sometimes not so different
from roadkill.

We have all been involved
in hit-and-run accidents,
haven't we?