Turtles all the way down

Creative strategies # 90: What are you gonna do?

turtles all the way down

I stop for a small turtle in the road

to speed its deadly pilgrimage across.

It hisses as I lift it & I gog

& drop it. A very hostile hiss, Dude.

Triggering a memory of gore:

A cornered snapping turtle in a bog.

We teased it with sticks which bore

the marks left by his whip neck & sharp beak.

I pick the turtle up. We do not speak.

I take him to the other side. A cross

old woman yells at me, “Not there! The dog!”

Her happy poodle yapping at the door.

The road. The dog. The ditch. Dude, Life is pain.

I can't look down at the turtle again.

—Patrick O’Leary

12/16/03--3/17/24