AMAZING POEM by Hayden Saunier

 

Night Crawlers

by Hayden Saunier

Morning: children shriek
the way to school.
Worms on the sidewalks,
pale pink bodies stretched blindly
across concrete, blacktop, hot sun
blinking between trees.
Three minutes of direct exposure
mean's they're toast.

Leaping wild, children dance
the dance of worm avoidance,
grind worms underfoot,
or peel up their sticky bodies,
place them gently in grass.

There's always a child who kills and only kills.
There's always a child who saves and only saves.
There's always a child, hunkered down
in the playground's corner
who establishes a hospital for worms,
who gathers worms brought by the merciful,
who places them tenderly in rows
and cuts them carefully
to pieces with a sharp wood chip.


Hayden Saunier, "Night Crawlers" from Tips for Domestic Travel. Copyright © 2009 Hayden Saunier, published by Black Lawrence Press.