(See What is the Count 2005 below**)
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(The Count 2004)
I went to see my niece today
A Sunday filled with sun
We went to Walmart for a desk
Assembled it for fun
On the way back home again
I recalled that night
A brown bull dog that morning
No owner in my sight
He lay dead beside the road
Struck by truck or car
While his spirit may be soaring
His body goes not far
And farther down that road
a peaceful 'Possum lay
He like the wayward dog
Took his last step today
Then further in the country
A raccoon dashed with red
No one stopped to comfort him
With all his life he bled
And by his side a vulture
Who fled from my loud horn
Scared perhaps enough to see
One more sunny morn'
Would there be more dead
Before my niece's door
Well yes indeed one gray fox
Would roam the fields no more
At last into the refuge
Melissa's welcome smile
Away from the draining deaths
With children for a while
But then it's back into the car
A desk for us to buy
A dead field mouse soon waited
With no one to ask why
A day of deaths a day of joys
To hope for peaceful dreams
For it's off to work tomorrow
To work on 5 year schemes
I awaken in the darkness
Another day to be
Hoping there are fewer deaths
For these tired eyes to see
A squirrel dashes into the road
I horn from far ahead
He scampers quickly backwards
Not on my list of dead
But all too soon and luckless
An orange cat appears
Much too flat and bloody
To hear his owner's tears
Then later still a shapeless blob
Still bright glowing red
Where something small and living
Is smaller now and dead
A young raccoon is waiting
Around another curve
Hit by someone in a hurry
Who wouldn't horn or swerve
A reddened blob then follows
His species quite unknown
Hit along the roadside
Like a reddish stone
Closer ever closer
Work almost in sight
Gathered in the median
Struck down in mid-flight
Four geese Canadian
Will never fill the sky
With their honks of greeting
Silent cars pass by
My desk, at last at work
No clues of death without
Saving lives the mission
Of victory no doubt
Happy hours of struggle
To save those of my kind
The journey through the abattoir
Never far from mind
And then it's back upon the road
A 'Possum I soon see
Open but death glazed eyes
Looking back at me
A rabbit then a black snake
Both will move no more
A hurried driver's racing car
Pushed them through death's door
And last a baking turtle
Of twenty pounds at least
Providing now for the ants
A broken bloody feast
I awaken on my birthday
Another ride to take
To the Cliffs of the Neuse
For me a welcome break
Although a short journey
But 20 miles ahead
Soon a young tuxedo cat
Has newly joined the dead
And then a hungry squirrel
Dashed to the other side
But never made it back home
With his nut to hide
And then ten miles of empty road
The goal almost in sight
But then a blob of dark brown fur
Has joined the darkest night
Hours of taking pictures
Of flowers and dragonflies
I walk through the green cathedral
Where no new body lies
But starting soon the journey
Back to home today
In answer to a silent prayer
No dead upon the way
Were these three days unusual
Only by the lack of dead
For no males searched for mates
No hunters to mount a head
Do you feel the sorrow
And seek something to do
Then go and make your own list
Let lawmakers hear from you
Start on the thirteenth day of June
And go for two more days
As you go to work or school
Note the dead on your ways
Note the miles you travel*
Find the road miles in your land
Calculate the total dead
Hold the answer in your hand
And when you have stopped crying
Let the politicians know
A world without animals
Is no place for kids to grow
©Tuscy Igo 6-23-04
* Total Miles I traveled in 3 days = 339.5 Total Dead = 20
Total miles of public highways in US = 3,936,230 (in 2000) in NC = 99,787 (March 2003)
Calculated Dead in 3 Days US = (3,936,230/ 339.5)* 20 = 231,884 NC = 5,878
Calculated Dead in 365.25 Days US = 28,231,871 NC = 715,704