In the Blink of an Eye

A dot on the sidewalk moving,                          the man of the world is afoot;a wife, a little girl, a son on the way,all awaiting his safe return.A promotion on his mind,the bearer of the bacon,his peers are impressed withthe future he’s making.Deals closed --- securing freedom;his anniversary, daughter’s birthday,the long awaited, extended vacation.A family man with values and devotion.Walking along humming a tune,dreaming of the morrow’s coming,he stops to acquirea dozen roses for his wife.Flowers in hand, he continues along,all but stopping again to admirea pair of childlike eyes that reminds himof his daughter’s undying affection.Moments later, with a song in his heart,he’s off and homeward bound ---roses in one arm, a puppy in the other,his feet just off the ground. Just around the corner,a man on the edge,walks aimlessly through the crowd,pushing, shoving, from inside his head,wants to scream out loud.A Vietnam Vet, divorced by his wife,cleaned out was his entire life,now down on his luck andcompletely stressed out,he knows only the realms of strife.Off the chains of restraint,he can no longer containthe anger that boils inside,no matter how hard he tries to refrain,overburdened by the storms that collide… The man of the world and a man on the edgeintersect and come face to face,all to the surprise of sudden chaos,intercepting the same time and space.“Bang-Bang,” rang two shots,one bullet flew astray, but the other, so sadly,struck the man in dismaythrough the heart of his dreams,and no one knew why,or just how everything could be lostin the blink of an eye. 
The Poetic Knight, 2007