Welcome to the Poetry Center of West Chester University

by Timothy Steele

Some small dark thing thrashed in the path;
And I, dumbfounded and afraid,
Recoiling from its agony,
Could not decipher, much less aid,

This lizard - was it? - or young snake.
Yet even as I stood aghast
A long thin leaf spun down upon
And quelled the shadow it had cast.