DAILY SNACK
The three of them were squatting in the dirt.
A half-filled gardening spade lay between them,
And they made a circle around it.
“See, you can touch it and it won’t hurt you,” said the biggest one.
He poked at a beetle-like bug that was trapped in the spade.
“Go ahead, Irene, touch it.”
“Yeah Irene, touch it! It won’t hurt you,” her brother chimed in.
Her little flaxen head bobbed up down above the bug,
But her hands did not move.
The chorus of “Touch it! Touch it!” grew louder and more insistent.
Until they took her little hands and tried to make her touch it.
Until I intervened.