Dead Things

I was walking down a street in my neighborhood when I came upon a dead squirrel. It's body was laid out in a way to which half of it (bottom half) was on the sidewalk and the half on the ground. No blood, no guts, no smell. This squirrel had recently passed.

I stood there looking down at it for a while. The squirrels' eyes were halfway closed as if it were sleepy. One hand (paw?) was palm down on the ground and the other was tucked under it's chest. The squirrel's tail was long and spread out on the pavement...the fur moving with the breeze.

I remembered coming across a series of photographs by Emma Kisiel called At Rest in which she creates and photographs  a serene memorial by encircling roadkill with rocks and flowers.
Here is one of her creations:

Emma Kisiel (Source)

I looked around and saw a bunch of wildflowers in the open lot adjacent to where I was standing.  Quickly, I picked a few of each color available. I went back to the squirrel and basically just tossed the flowers here and there. I didn't take the time to pull the blossoms from the stems and arrange them in a beautiful circle with little rocks. This is because I was afraid somebody would see me if I didn't hurry up and think I was the neighborhood weirdo (if they don't already). Also, I was a little afraid of getting too close to Mr. Squirrel. Not because of germs and diseases but because I had the irrational thought that he might come back to life and attack me.




This happened yesterday. This morning, I went back to the death spot to see if the squirrel was still there. No squirrel, no flowers, no nothing.