A Simple Walk – a Poem

A simple Walk

It was to be an ordinary, simple walk, like all the others,

until she saw a small furry animal squirming on the side of the road.

It was a bunny, injured, probably a car.

There, the walk ended. Compassion took over.

She carefully placed the bunny in a box and carried it home.

“Why?” I asked.  “Because it was hurt.”  That was all that was said.

She placed the bunny on a cushion, gave it some water and pieces of lettuce.

But it could not eat or drink. It flopped from side to side.

“I’m no veterinarian, but a broken back,” I think.

We look at each other and then at the bunny. It will not survive.

But she continued doing what she could with what she had—

After all, isn’t that all that is asked of us?

We both knew she was giving palliative care, the same care

we hope to receive when our time comes.

By trial and error, she found the bunny would drink oat milk.

Feeding the little bunny from an eye dropper, at first she drank heartily

But as the days went by, she stopped taking it altogether. The end was near.

We went away for the weekend to care for our grandchildren.

From time to time, I could see a far-away look in her eyes

that look of concern, of powerlessness, of sadness,

for the life of another sentient being.

There was a connection between two beings who both knew suffering.

When we returned, the bunny was breathing, but still.

That night the bunny died in comfort, asleep.

She placed the bunny on a bed of flowers in the garden,

offering up nourishment to other sentient beings.

And so it goes- compassion, a repeating cycle of giving and receiving

in one great loop of grace and mercy,

the only thing that counts

Entered into while on a simple walk.