Thirty two days now I’ve been out walking
What have I found and what have I seen?
A spotted catfish curled up on the shore
A hedgehog sent to sleep in the road
A wide-eyed bird lying on the verge, so small I hid it in my hand
A piece of fibre-glass hull, jetsam from a storm spat dinghy
A side-swiped bumble bee, membranous wings frozen open on the lane
And I’ve carried a slow-crawling young toad across the street
So, like all the others, it made it to the other side
.
n.b. www.napowrimo.net Day 19 prompt collect a “walking archive.”
Christopher Perry
19th April, 2020
Journey of Words 
16 responses
Lovely.
Thank you for reading and your comment. It was good to be able to save one life.
Happy feeling. 🙂
so beautiful – no walking for us in lockdown. no road, no river. no beach. luckily there is space enough to get a little lost in the garden.
Hi Lindi, Thank you for your comment. I have been puzzled all day trying to work out what kind of a place you live in. It is good to know that you have space enough to get a little lost in the garden.
I live on a small holding – mostly indigenous forest on a steep slope into a ravine. There is enough flat land on the ridge of the hill to keep some chickens and a few goats and to grow some veg. So I am incredibly lucky to be in lockdown here – plenty of space for walking and working and getting lost – but yesterday I do miss the river and the estuary and the ocean though. I cannot see them from here
Perhaps I over answered that…..perhaps the answer was simply Wilderness, South Africa.
Not over answered at all… I had the wrong continent and no idea of the environment! Thank you for describing your setting for me.
Too curious not to ask – where are you writing from, and which was the wrong continent?
I thought North America (Canada / Midwest). North Norfolk coast, the too of the East Anglian rump of England…facing due north 🥶
…the top of the East Anglian rump…
What a relief, the ending! Phew! Life is hard, at times, isn’t it?
Sad for the ones who didn’t make it… I can never get used to creatures being here, then not. Thanks for saving the young toad.
It is easier to save things when walking or cycling! The lockdown has brought bonuses.
Grateful for this🙏💜
So many lost but one saved. There is hope in that.