Reunion

Just past the Daphne Lodge 

an armadillo half crossed and then 

stopped in the middle of the road.

Good timing was not his forte.

Things might have gone differently 

if he had not so proudly stood, 

and squinted back our way. 

Of course he could have just been 

as his mother always said, 

"too tall for his own good".

Most likely he'll be missed 

and then toasted to, I'm sad to say, 

at his family's sullen reunion.
I can imagine the softly spoken eulogy 

and the nodding armadillo heads,

a throng of small armored claws
holding their tiny glasses high

for a second or two that day.

I had steered to straddle him with
perfection but it was not to be.
If only he'd read the Dodge emblem 
upon our van and quickly tried to do so,
our meeting could have been more brief
and not ended so bumpily.