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