The Common Green Frog with his hindlegs sprawled into acceptance took a breath that would
be his last & gently freed the air inside himself with love. The sun gazed down upon its parting
amphibian—noticing closely his content—& saw the Frog’s digits woven as if in prayer,
gratitude spilling out onto the lily pad hoisting him up. A friend of the common Frog, the Blue
Heron, watched the death by the pond shoreline. The Heron’s bill bowed low, scraping the
pebbles lining the Frog’s home. She had not lost a friend before, & had known the Frog since
he was a tadpole brimming with life. The Blue Heron shed a tear at this moment & prayed too
like the Frog, though she prayed for rain. A hard and heavy rain to rinse away her memories of
this pond & the Frog. The Heron raised her bill, surveyed the waters replete with her sorrow,
and took off—flying from her friend on the lily pad to a place with perhaps more life than the
pond. She decided she could not live by that pond any longer. It reeked of fading.