Classic Poem

There it lies: —
An injured toad,
Tumbled away to the side of the road,
Dashed from the track of its shiny slime;
Silly sight for pausing eyes:
Skeptic of the rules of Time ...
Where has it thrown its respectable load?

Passive inhabitants — how they were hurled
Into a sudden other world;

Jagged fragments of glass lie down
Each like a frozen cry or frown.

Oh what a change! And what a strange
Upheaval of hands must have gone to that,
Or following plunge at a falling hat,
Or lurching into a broken thigh,
All to the spurt of one question: Why?

That heavy load of metal found
An easy lean, and sharply went
Over to attractive ground,
Better to lie down content
(Better than the captive glide)
Lazily upon its side —
Element to element.