"Every passing bird, every river Says lay-lay to you my baby"

found an acorn woodpecker in the middle of the road last night. just laying there. dead. sometimes i close my eyes when i know i'm coming up on something that lay dead in the road. avoiding the sad and mangled blood and guts of what once was a breathing animal. i hate seeing dead animals. i think most people do.
but we reversed for this mysterious thing in the road. my eyes followed the lights onto the black reflection of this woodpecker that lay there still in the brightness of our headlights, in the darkness of the forrest. it was so beautiful. i held it in my hand. it was big and warm and incredibly soft. so now it lies not in the gray of the gravelly road but in the freezer. in the hands of the likeness of its probable ending. dead but living on for my selfish desire to gaze forever at his beauty.