before

Rising From the Task
                     (draft)
Rising from the task,
unbending arms
and legs
and neck
muscles,
seeing the objects,
removed from my hands,
I wonder.

Was the time spent
gripping red mottled carcasses,
cracking thirty backs,
scrapping knuckles,

Were three hours of
breathing salt, wet & dense,
picking legs,
tossing shells,
holding cats at bay,
worth it?

We'll know this winter.