a mouse just born
slept pink and blind
in a bag of mulch
poured into the garden.
i froze when i found it
studied the beating
of its fragile heart
and skin lined
translucent with veins
its eyes pinched shut like
seashells.
but i knew nothing else to do.
so i turned the mulch back
over the pulsing morsel
and left it there
in the cool cedar