Zelophehad’s Daughters

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrustive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help;

Next morning I got up and it did not.
the first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same: we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.