Bob Raymonda: The Inevitability of Harm’s Way

STANLEY

when it rains the courtyard is flooded with snails

& slugs the size of a swollen thumb leaking

slime out behind them & onto the musty sidewalk

She has me pick one up and place them

onto the curb and out of the inevitability

of harm’s way, threatening their every step

& even though they’re pests, we feel

an affinity towards them, mistaking their

mealy appendages for a warm sensibility

and as the sun intercedes, baking the

path so they’re forced to either retreat or

spend their final days being cooked alive

we mourn when we find an abandoned shell,

nothing preserved but the mesmerizing spiral

that one could only imagine ever actually ending

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Bob Raymonda is the founding editor of BreadcrumbsMag.com. He graduated from Purchase College with a focus in creative nonfiction. Some of his other work can be found in Potluck Mag, Visual Verse, Syndicated, & Quail Bell Magazine. Learn more at: www.bobraymonda.co.