Chipmunk

Chipmunk by debgrant

It happened several years ago.

A lesson alive with my reflection.

A chipmunk crossed the road in front of my car.

A little brown flash. A shape like a little brown fist

with its pinkie finger tail raised for tea.

My reaction time too slow to the brake.

Only slow enough to change my gaze with anticipatory grief to the rearview mirror.

I saw the creature tumbling mid-air in my turbulence,

then land on its feet, stunned but alive disappearing

into the undergrowth.

I was relieved but didn’t give the chipmunk a second thought until

I was the chipmunk.

Until I was the creature caught tumbling in the turbulence

of someone who had driven over me because they could.

And then it happened. The lesson. The clarity of self-awareness.

I too have been the overpowering one plowing over unprotected one

in my presence with barely a glance in the rearview reflection.

I have left tender humans tumbling in my wake.

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