April is Poetry Month, so I thought to share a thoughtful poem with you all before we run out of April.  Enjoy, and be kind.

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found

A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed.  It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.

Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably.  Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.

The first day after a death, the new absence

Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

by Philip Larkin, from the book Because a Fire was in My Head, edited by Michael Morpurgo