I eye-witnessed a murder this morning.

Brutal,

savage in its cruelty!

Horrible!

The heron hunting the pond,

while box turtles rest on the banks in the warming sun.

Gray squirrels, for fun,

chasing each other along the shore line,

swapping roles to forestal boredom.

All blithely oblivious to the slow dismemberment

of some muddy crab,

speared by the knife beak of the, finally, successful predator.

Shaking the shell and spidery legs off,

stabbing the guts,

swallowing the meat,

the residue sinks to the muck below,

fertilizer…

In retrospect, though,

I really don’t know.

The heron, well fed, to feed its chicks,

the lowly crab, unmourned.

All necessary contributions to the scheme

accomplished.

Who am I to denigrate success?

We all must learn to earn our turn

on the ever spinning wheel.

The crab,

if he could,

would lose his appeal.

The Judge,

creator of the precedent:

Innocent By Justifiable Homicide.

So….

to me,

all is well

and as it

ought to be.