IF YOU’RE GIVEN A MIND
by Robert K. Johnson
(for Jean)
wholly alert,
driving
onto a bridge will show you
how narrowly confined
our lives are—how inches-close
to a mistake that will ram
our speeding car through the railing,
plunge us into the water’s
fathomless dark. Why wouldn’t
this fact, like a trap slammed shut,
swirl panic through you, spur you
to jam on the brakes, stop
right where you are, and fill
the air with a cry of terror.
Copyright © 2012 by Robert K. Johnson.