It’s a stock movie device – the creature,
monster, serial killer… is laid out, down
for the count, or only appears that way,
the characters are stepping away just as
the creature/monster/serial killer comes
around and comes after them once more.
The theater audience sometimes screams
or squirms in their seats as the evil comes
back to pursue the hero and his hapless
crew. Real things can happen that way too,
like this morning there’s snow on the ground,
it’s almost the middle of May and yesterday
we were out planting things as if that stock
movie device wouldn’t happen, the monster
was down and then it’s up again pursuing
our sense of the seasons. Just imagine this
playing out on an even larger stage/screen,
imagine all of us stepping away from this,
this plague, this pandemic, stepping away
finally satisfied that it was vanquished, we’re
shaking hands, high fiving all around, while
the monster/creature/serial killer, revived
from the momentary lapse, is coming up from
behind – then someone in the theater screams
and we all begin to squirm in our theater seats.
………
J. K. Durick is a retired writing teacher and online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Literary Yard, Vox Poetica, Synchronized Chaos, Madswirl, and in the anthology, Along the Way.