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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Box Turtle



I’m on my way to pick up the mail.
You are parked along the driveway.
Back leg extended, neck craning forward in suspended
animation.
Your amber reptilian eye
fixates on me with an air of defiance.

I know where you are headed.
Across the asphalt
to reach the other side of the road.

But would you not be safer here?
Under the juniper hedge,
Sheltered in cool layers of leaf litter.

You know better.
Instincts intact, you stand dead still.
Wait for me to go,
quite unperturbed. I take in the beauty
of your embossed shell.

Golds and russets and grays adorn you.
Your skin is folds, scales and horny leather.
A pert little tail protrudes from under.

Will your sharp claws propel you
to the other side
in your own sweet time?

Half an hour later
vanished.

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