A HIGHER LAW

                    A neighbor came and rang our front doorbell
                    While clutching to her chest a baby bird
                    She’d picked up from the tree from which it fell,
                    Discovered by the peeping she had heard.

                   “What do you think that I should do with it?”
                   It’s sure to be the prey for someone’s cat
                   Or hop into the street and then be hit—
                   “I couldn’t stand to see a fate like that.”

                  The best I thought to say was to suggest
                  She see a neighbor up the street who’d found
                  Three baby owls who’d fallen from their nest
                  But with a sanctuary’s help were sound.

                      Though nature may be “red in tooth and claw,”
                      We know that kindness is a higher law.

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