Turned Upside Down By a Group of Children:

Helpless! I stare up at human children. Their discovery of me has begun. I, slow- moving in undergrowth before I know it, am flipped upside down. I move my legs, desperate, they grip air while, amusement of children ripples like a brook, Look they chuckle. “ He’s stuck” And they poke at me and form a ring of eyes, above. I am desperate for kindness now I retract my neck and limbs quiet as death until bored the children seeing no movement, right me again, I stumble on, until a foot with toes poised to flip is stopped by words I prayed for defensive, kind “Let the poor thing go.” I hide in the cool leaves before my last desperate lurch, pond water surges over me, I swim, my legs paddle. The water lilies are beautiful