His name was Rolf, <br />Rolfie for all the kids <br />who teased him, daily <br />while waiting for the yellow bus. <br /> <br />He stood behind the fence <br />ears perked and all wound up <br />the driver was a mama of <br />three hundred pounds or more, <br />she took a fancy to the critter <br />and gave him little treats <br />out of her bulging esky <br />just one to greet the day. <br /> <br />She always winked at him, <br />and he winked back at her <br />as if to say I like you too <br />and all your blubber is okay. <br /> <br />The day before Thanksgiving, <br />the snow had just begun, <br />a foolish postman did a big one-eighty, <br />in front of Rolf. Knocked down his fence <br />and slid into the deepest ditch. <br /> <br />It was his chance and Rolfie left <br />the safety of his property behind. <br />And as the bus accelerated <br />he ran, with eager legs and <br />sudden purpose quite unknown to him. <br /> <br />It had to happen, he slid and disappeared <br />right under the big monster by GM. <br />All kids now screamed and pounded <br />their little fists in great despair, <br />and one fat foot stomped on the brake, <br />she flew right out the door and crawled <br />no athlete could have beaten her <br />beneath that bus, expecting on this day, <br />when she had burned her toast <br />and broke the coffee cup, the one from Rome, <br />and when there was no time to waste <br />because the principal would not be kind, <br />she did expect the smirk of death, of course. <br /> <br />And, burning now her face on red-hot pipes, <br />while looking in the dark, within the snow <br />for one sad bundle of a snuffed out life, <br />the kids, now peeking too, between the tyres, <br />were startled by her sudden laughter, <br />by screams of joy and muffled cries. <br /> <br />And there she was, sprawled in the snow <br />her arms around the stupid critter, tightly. <br />'Twas very hard to tell for any of the kids <br />who was the happier right then, between the two.<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/critter/
