July #6

I want to know why
I am so silly.
Others might say
I am compassionate,
or humane.
Isn't it funny how close the words human and humane are,
and yet how different the end products?
I drove today,
beautiful twilight dusk
that was destroyed
when I watched a rabbit
flee too slow
and end up between my tires.
Trying to reassure myself,
I listened for a crunch
that never came.
Yet still
I drove to my house,
found my father,
put my head on his shoulder,
and whispered
the unthinkable,
and then, unthinkably,
I cried.

July #5

Driving
down country roads
headlights on
against the dark
when a sudden turn down a hill
lights up one thing:
an innocent white tail
tiny and low
bobbing much too close
to your headlights.
it is too close
and too soon
to react.
you can only watch,
and grieve prematurely.