The Mower by Philip Larkin

My Samhain poem.  Since it's already posted on the net, I'm guesstimating/hoping it's OK for me to post it here.

The Mower by Philip Larkin

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed.  It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably.  Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.