*

It looked and smelled like the excrement
of a giant bull, a pile of you-know-what.
Then it moved.

A giant snapping turtle went to explore
after its customary swamping-grounds
were submerged from torrential rains.
Without intervention, it was stepping to
its destruction in search of another
mudhole.  

It had ruled the same sewage
runoff swamp for several decades.
But now, it was dragging its bulky
weight to its final judgment. --and
deservedly so--

After all, it was a murderous old thing,
many a duck, goose, and heron found
their watery graves in its putrid bowels.
However, it was spotted by two good
Samaritans who took it, while it protested
vigorously, back to its original swampland
that it might carry on
with its snapping autocratic cruelty.
Mercy
knows no limits.

*