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Snail's Pace

It had climbed from the lavender
under the open window
and now creeps along the sill.
I think of Hughes' thought-fox
and Lowell's skunk,
then slow down...

slow down; for a creature
moving so slowly the world
flashes by too fast... now my feelers
probe tentatively, I heave
myself over the minutest obstacles
leaving a silvery trace...

Then my godlike hand plucks the snail
from the sill and tosses it out -
'Don't even think about living in MY house
without paying the rent!'
In that attitude, also, it may be said
that I am godlike.

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