50
ONLY HUMAN
I did not survive pancreatic cancer
to be mauled by someone’s pet.
A grumpy old man goes for a walk
on a fine summer morning.
In the news:
“while on a fishing excursion a seventy three
year old woman was stabbed in the groin
by a hundred pound sailfish leaping
from the warm water off Florida.”
Recently I saw
or heard, I listened to,
on the computer,
his morning routine described by a monk
or part of it, that after watching the breath
as when asleep,
he contemplates his death,
the new day has no guarantees.
Taking the wooded park path,
ruminating on the monk and memories,
vacations to Florida, warm ocean waters,
the tropical smell ...
SCREAMING!
Jolts me.
A woman desperately trying
to call back
her off-leash,
enormous,
pandemic,
dog, charging at me.