Preciousness of life

Today i let myself see a life slip away. It was a turtle. It was raining and somehow it was swept into the canal outside my school. I was at the bustop when i saw it struggle to climb out onto the shallower part of the drain. It made it's way slowly towards what it perceived, as home. Not knowing that no matter how much it walked, it would never get out of that drain. At one point, it stopped and raised it's head, peering at the steep concrete slope to it's left; the path it needed to take to it's freedom. It's almost as if it's thinking. "will i be able to make it up?"

It moved on. Determined to find another way. After all, if one way's not good, there's always another. right?It moved on.

I watched it drag it's heavy shell as it moved along, my heart wrenched. It was going to die one way or another. Sooner or later. The drain is not a place for a turtle. Like fish out of water. Once the rain gets bigger, it would be washed into some sewage pipe. If it survived, it would starve and die a slow painful death. I was tempted to save it.And then transport it to a pond. After all the stairs down the drain was only a short walk away. How difficult could that be, that flight of stairs?

I watched it inch along. The bus came and i boarded it.