Death in the Afternoon

22May07

    Yesterday afternoon we came upon a dead creature in the yard, in the grass just on the edge of the driveway. It had no visible marks upon it. At first I thought that it was was a mole, but its feet did not seem as prominent as other moles I’ve seen. Upon observing it again today, and checking the West Virginia DNR website, I found that it is a northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda).

“maybe death
isn’t darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us—”

—-Mary Oliver, from White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field

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