Machine or man be damned
If I find another slug in my bathroom floor

Six this week, and each a

Slight,

With gentle hands and
a select-a-size, diamond texture and anchor design
wasteful, but built for –well, not this, exactly–
waste

We.

Me &
That partner of mine, we show our visitor to the door.

We are careful, but inept.

And as we drop them
gently
in the meadow of daylilies–
that I always remember incorrectly as tigers
–basking in the moonglow garden bed, I wonder

Was it service
to any of us, really?

We have tried so hard to seal ourselves up tight against the uninvited.

He hopes that this is the last time.
I pour salt down every drain.