Uncovering Snails Poem by Jim McDonald

Gardening yesterday I lifted a large log
and uncovered a teeming party of life.
Woodlice scuttled away
An earwig made its hurried passage to safety.
I could have been a blackbird, after all.
Looking more closely I saw a small snail uncurl itself
and begin a ponderous crawl back
into the damp safety of the woodpile.
My first impulse was to take a stone and smash it
a revenge for invading my strawberries.
I paused.
I climbed down and gazed, huge face to tiny body
and saw a thing of unique beauty.
The delicate eye stalks curled away from the warmth of my breath
and for several moments everything stopped.
I lifted it carefully and deposited it in the long grass.
It will take weeks to get back to the vegetable patch.

15.vi.2007.