Nov 15th, 2023

Author: donich_admin

Dead Leaf

Ten minutes after J arrived to stay for a few days, Saphy came shooting into the house with something very large in her jaws.

I immediately panicked, thinking that what she had was a squirrel.

In fact, what she had was a very large wet leaf, and concealed in the leaf was a very small wet shrew. With considerable aplomb, J captured it and released it outside unharmed.

For some reason the whole scene reminded me of a poem “Liu Ch’e” written by the Emperor Wu in the 1st century BC.

The scratching of the claws is discontinued,
Dust drifts over the mantlepiece,
There’s no sound of screaming, and the leaf
Is pulled beneath a chair and lies still,
And it the rejoicer of the heart is reft away:
A wet leaf that clings to the carpet;
A shrew running free in the garden.

But I paraphrase; Schrodi would have done better.