Vernon Witmer Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

Catch and Release

Maybe I should have said something but I didn’t.
I thought it might upset the girls.
I stared for several moments 
Lost between thought and action 
Waiting for a sign, but no help was forthcoming.
I thought of Buddhists and worms in the movie:
 "7 Years in Tibet". How Buddhists cannot harm even worms. 
Any living creature may be your Mother in another life, 
Therefore you must show respect to all living creatures.
In the end I said nothing, did nothing.
I left the daddy long legs resting on the metal roller 
At the end of the swimming pool where I had discovered him.
I wondered how he had gotten there and what would become of him.
Two days later my wife returned from the pool and casually mentioned 
How she and her friend had removed several bugs floating on the surface.
All of them were dead. One of them, she said, was a daddy long legs spider.
It was a small thing, but sometimes even the smallest of things 
Can make your day feel heavier.

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Leo Larry Amadore June 11, 2021 at 1:40 PM Your Buddhist reference seemed appropriate (if a bit unexpected) and the subsequent discovery by your wife and her friend made a counter-point but not unexpected conclusion: a situation of the sort that might have also been faced by Albert Schweitzer during his sojourn in Africa in his "Reverence for life" years. I appreciated your poem; thank you for posting.