hailstones & snail homes

as the cumulonimbi thrash & tear the

sky,

the quiet chill envelopes you & stops you in your tracks,

snapping your head quick like a bird in the

wild

(looking around for predators),

your eyes stare straight up & as a thousand little

white heads of needles

you first see the hailstones drop---

growing in size as they collect together in the sky

they quicken their pace

&

up from your ditch,

still slithering atop the ground, a bit distant from the

freshwater that spawned you---

your shell still a bit wet,

you drag your home along with you

now with your neck cocked and your

radula ripping this miniscule bits of pretzel that

some stupid human dropped down

splashing right next to you,

while they were hiking one day---

as the ice chunks in the sky make their way closer &

closer,

you look around for any of your friends

but they have all gone away,

perhaps taking shelter under a fallen log

or

in a pile of wet moss on the shore of that now distant

water’s edge---

but your own personal end of the world is heading right for you,

and you continue gliding along so slowly on that

one flat foot

on a plain of mucus that you spend your time secreting---

all this will be gone in a split second,

you feel,

if you can’t find shelter

quick---but as fast as you try to move,

you curse in a single word of snailspeak

those disgusting humans who consider you a good source of

protein,

in spain,

the philippines,

italy, greece & of course,

france---

you also curse those christian humans

who would consider you a symbol of

laziness---

as if you had any other choice in the matter!

& with your frustration level at a maximum,

not able to move any quicker,

sliming & sliming towards a fallen log off in the distance---

you will not reach your own personal

promised

land,

for the catastrophic has entered your mental

plane

as the humongous ice balls which look like crashing

planets

begin to smash down all around you &

without blinking your

stick-up eyes,

one hits the top of your shell

cracking your whole self open,

splashing & spreading your snail corpse out all over

the muddy ground.

 

it is all over so very quick.