The second time, she dropped it in my hand:
a warm offering, somehow still alive.
2.
This morning she left it on the porch: warm
yet lifeless, before she walked casually away.
3.
That second time, I took it past the back gate
and released it into the wild.
4.
The last time content just to show me,
she left it on the porch, and came inside.
(March 28, 2023)
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