Squirrel
Furry grayish red-brown streak,
Please try not to look so sweet
As you dash into the street,
Should’ve moved with faster feet!
Why’d you run out in the street?
Just to get a bite to eat?
Lying mangled in defeat,
Lying broken in the street.
Such a tragedy to meet,
With an end that’s not so neat,
Must you be so indiscreet
As lying shattered in the street?
Hal C Clark
‘May 2010
In the spring and early summer, we see a number of young squirrels who never learned to cross the street (they didn’t look both ways and wait for traffic). One day as I was driving, a squirrel ran out into the street ahead of me, then changed his mind and came back across. I guess I didn’t hit him, because I didn’t see him in my mirror. A couple of weeks later I was driving to the supermarket when all these lines started forming in my mind and I struggled to remember them until I could pull into the parking lot and write them down. After some editing and rearranging, this is the result.
For me, the rhyming pattern and length of lines give a sense of urgency and frustration to the poem. This matches the frantic activity of these small animals. By the way, the ones that live to be experienced learn about the high road: the cable wires that go from pole to pole over the street. They cross these non-electric lines with the skill and grace of a tight rope walker and don’t have to contend with traffic – unless they slip.
Hal C Clark's Blog 