Wind-up Toy

[dukealien]

Thanks for the editing, dukealien!!!  Much appreciated!

Wind-up Toy (version 2)

a squirrel’s mangled body lay in the road
run over by a car
for a few moments, its tail flailed wildly like a wind-up toy
sporadically slowed down
until it stopped completely
the instant of death must have been more dreadfully agonizing
and horrible than torture
death was a blessing
a liberation
how abhorrent would it have been if it had been
unable to die?
is death so horrendous?
if only men could die with such content…

I'd say "contentment," but still having trouble with the meaning there.

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A suggestion:  If you edit your original post to insert the latest edit at the top, then enclose previous versions in the keywords

{open square bracket}pre verse{close square bracket}

above and 

{open square bracket}/pre verse{close square bracket}

below, only the latest version will appear but below it will be a button 

like this

interested readers can click to see the previous version(s).  The downside is that this edit doesn't cause the revised thread to go to the top of he "waterfall" list of recent posts - but also including the latest version in a new reply will do that as well as putting the new version where readers will see it if they enter the thread from the waterfall (which goes to the latest post in the thread) rather than the forums list.