Did She

When she stepped into the traffic
did she see the oncoming,

judge the distance;
the fleet footedness
of her thoughts calculating
the crossing,

or did she read the red end of her life
the way a deer might
caught in a blind light,
paralyzed by decisions?

I watched,
perhaps other eyes were on her
too far away from the moment
to save or rescue her time.

When planes break apart
the passengers fall out of it
thinking, calculating,
& dying before the end.

Possums lay in the road
gambling on deadness
to fend off an 18 wheelers.

Did a ghost of a thought
push her back,
keep her swaying 
like a cartoon road-runner
on the curb edge,

or did she plunge into the truck
gambling that she would
always be 
a moment away?

Was she already lost 
as she unraveled a tangle
at the other side of town.

This we cannot say,
for most of us reflexively 
looked away.

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