a wind change, a curve ball, a hiccup

and a split bowl of hot soup

falling on a man’s head coming from

100 stories up,

cool to the touch after that long journey,

i suppose some might

count him lucky.

a venturing out when spring is in the air,

sniff, sniff –

smoke, exhaust fumes, gasoline,

not a good time for cleaning and shopping,

wrap this shawl tighter around

to keep out that want to

and the dishes have all been done,

the empty refrigerator is beginning to show,

a rumbling sound, like thunder,

burp. gasoline smells even stronger now.

spring, beautiful spring is in the air

with a tight shawl around my arms,

cannot keep me from wanting to do

that dance, that wave, that pounce,

where’s the nearest farmer’s market?

fumes in the air, dirt in the eyes, a car skids

nearly knocks an adventurous man off his feet!

dang, that was a close one,

did not see the banana peel just around the corner,

slip, fall,

the old shawl prevented arms from breaking the fall

then the pain. oops, hip replacement needed.

winter comes fast, a night with a full moon, the wolves

can be heard howling: a woman steps out from her cottage

to gather the night flowers at the top of the hill,

near the caves of known bears, she cannot stop that itch

to watch those cubs with shiny eyes glowing in the dark.

mama bear is pissed,

she makes her stand and the woman took a really good picture,

disappeared into the night

and won a million bucks for that photo shoot.

ouch, said the man in hospital who hip replacement surgery

did not go quite as expected,

seems like there is another hiccup

as he watched the news, what a sight a 12 glowing eyes

in the dark, with mama bear raising her claws!

he was watching gofundme for the woman,

transferred another 20k to her account,

when he learned that mama bear had followed her home,

nearly ripped her to pieces, though she managed to get away

with just a tattered skirt.

a rumble, it sounded too close to home,

it was not his stomach this time

and the man looked around to try and fit

the pieces together as the walls began to shake

violently: an earthquake? then a sinkhole appeared right

beneath his bed, swallowed up, just like that,

he was gone.

it was such a waste,

that man – his thesis almost complete,

on a breakthrough, an insight, left deep

in his pocket with no backup.

yeah, he was old fashioned,

never touched a computer,

disliked those things, scribbles about

it might have changed the idea of existence,

it might have changed the frontiers of science,

for he was both philosopher and scientist,

but his last ah ha moment was:

i really did not expect this.