Home » Poems » Andrew Delapruch » Hailstones and Snail Homes

Hailstones and 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.

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