A little girl was running up and down the beach.
Her task: the rescuing of starfish, two at a time,
from hundreds stranded where the tide had left them.
Her journeys lengthened as the minutes passed.

Taking his daily walk along the hard wet sand,
a man stopped to admire her energy and work.
‘If I don’t do this, they will die,’ she told him, breathless.
He smiled, but said, ‘Look at them; there are hundreds.
How can you make a difference?’

                                                        Pausing just long enough
to wave the two she held in front of her, she said,
‘I’ll make a difference to these two.’ Off she ran.