Saturday, April 4, 2009

Worms

I saw you all, dozens, hundreds - stretched out across the sidewalks, driven forth by a day's worth of rains. Slivers of flesh, glistening under the streetlights as you flee from the puddles.

Oh holy ones who return dead matter to life!


And now, every step home, I watch the ground, avoid even the narrow twigs that have fallen, even the stray piece of string. Every stride is measured, careful. For to tread on these delicate creatures, even by mistake, would be a grave trespass against creation. Better to err on the side of caution and avoid slender terrestrial objects altogether.

5 comments:

Bbear said...

Back when I was a strange child that played with insects (and tried to make "ant colonies"), I never touched worms. I wonder why that was.

Katie said...

Ant colony: a bunch of ants collected and placed in a bucket of sand which turn out to be from different colonies. So they kill each other.

feng said...

aww, you do realize that a good number of these worms are going to die regardless because for some odd reason they can't seem to find their way back into the soil once the sidewalk dries and they dry out if they are left on the sidewalk too long; if they don't get picked up by birds first that is. I wouldn't worry about the ones in the puddles, they are probably dead already. Nature is cruel. Perhaps sidewalks are cruel. But it's a nice thought just the same.

Katie said...

Yeah... I'm fine if nature is cruel. I just don't wanna step on worms if I can help it! :D

l a u r e n said...

curse man-made matter!