Righting Reflex

Everything has its beginning. 

  It is not always what you would expect.

  Sometimes

 it ends up

 making pitch-perfect sense

  as if

written in the stars,

 in stone

 or on notarized natal paper.

Othertimes 

it catches you 

completely exposed and unaware. 

Like that dream

 bottomless in a crowd 

surrounded

 by unsavory sorts 

no escape from

the ones who crave other’s shame.  

Nothing but tiny grey field mouse

scurrying about in the shrubs. 

 My beginning 

stares at me 

 huge open black circles 

 hind legs quivering

marching in place

 readying to launch

 on to my small unsuspecting existence. 

 Like the mouse, I did not see it coming.

  

The only clue was a flash, 

a shock of movement

 blurring into a broad shadow 

looming over me, 

darkening my world, 

unweighting me

 from my comfortable ways.    

Twisting and turning tales

 my righting reflex 

lands me

splash

down

solid

I shake it off 

with a sideways smirk

“I meant to do that” 

as I walk away.

NaPoWriMo  Day 11

Photo by Lucas Lenzi on Unsplash