Man with Three Coffees Hit by a Bus: A Parable

Mixing with his blood entering the gutter

streamed unflavored coffee

from three large cups.

Had the man failed

three ER nurses

working an extra shift?

Bought one for himself,

now-diminished

Good Samaritan?

Labored to redress a mother’s metastasis,

placate a disowned son

or tend to a second mistress?

Selfish devil then

deserving

of fate’s harsh hand?

And what of complicit recipients,

three women -- tall, plump or spendthrift

shopping upscale & impatient for a pick-me-up,

& bus driver who had turned

to quip to the asphalt engineer,

“Tall latte for me”?

Fact: Man with blood in gutter had

only moments before steadied the tray

of a certain St. Barbara behind him

who knew little more

than the few culpable details

which gave her standing

to see how others had eagerly

poured hypotheses into three large cups

& ignored grief flowing over the top

21 March 2012