Hedgehog

Its leg was not broken. It was not homeless.

It clenched in my hands, a living flinch.

You cannot love so much and live,

it whispered, its spines clicking like teeth.

I hid it from itself in a cardboard box.

Overnight it nibbled a hole and slipped away.

I cried so much my mother thought I’d never stop.

She said, you cannot love so - and yet

I grew to average size and amused a lot of people

with my prickliness and brilliant escapes