Philip Arthur Larkin

The Mower

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.