snail

[sinotsimon]

arriving home
from the
stop today, I
trod on a
snail a few
steps from the
steps to our
door at the
back of the
shop.
I knew
when I cracked
its crispy shell
I should
tread down hard
to make it
fast,
so with one
foot
on the green
metal step,
I looked below
my lifted heel,
revealing the
shell and the
slug which was
ground to the
pebbledash
path,
and said sorry.

[Dr. Cambridge]

arriving home
from the
stop today, I
trod on a
snail a few
steps from the
steps to our
door at the
back of the
shop.
I knew
when I cracked
its crispy shell
I should
tread down hard
to make it
fast,
so with one
foot
on the green
metal step,
I looked below
my lifted heel,
revealing the
shell and the
slug which was
ground to the
pebbledash
path,
and said sorry.
Hang on, were you coming or going from the stop or the shop, and did you stop on the steps of the shop or did your steps stop at the top of the steps to your door?

Anyway, you should watchout for snails wherever you step and stop squashing them on your way home from the shop!

[sinotsimon]

I was on my way home from the bus stop and as I got to the steps, which were at the back of the shop which I lived above, I trod on a snail. The snail squishing foot was on the path and the other foot was on the step. :brow:

[lallison]

Great poem, I love how when reading it the story very slowly unfolds with all the details and the line breaks. The shape also looks a bit like the skid mark from wiping your foot. When I got to the end, I felt like you were apologizing to me for putting me through the agony of listing to your slow and mildly sadistic stomping story. I had to laugh, feeling a bit like your snail for reading it. Great work!

[Hawkman]

This fatal tale you tell us of one gastropod’s demise
Ignites in me my pity and leaves me to surmise
Assuming that I had a choice, how I’d prefer to die.
Fast and without warning, by act of god snuffed out,
Or slow and stealthily draw near, so every day I’d count,
Until at last I craved it, hoping for death’s steed to mount.

We used to have a news show of the title, “Nationwide”
Upon it once they showed a snail of just titanic size.
This beast would drink a pint of beer by clinging to the side.
But eventually, of course, the poor thing just curled up and died.
Were I a snail, would I prefer a crushing for my nemesis
Or after many years of drink, succumb then to cirrhosis?

By the way, this is a true story. The snail in question even rated an obituary on the programme!

thanks for sharing your confession of gastropodicide... H

[PrinceMyshkin]

Could your (late) snail but read, I feel it might forgive you - for rendering this so vividly.

[sinotsimon]

Thankyou for your kind comments, for Hawkman:

Inspired
by my
gastropodicide,
(a word
I did not know)
your poem lifted
a stubborn mouth
to its first broad smile
on this snail-paced
Saturday.

:)

[Buh4Bee]

A light and silly little poem. I am still laughing.

[sinotsimon]

Thankyou, glad you were amused :)