Seconds

..spent the weekend Downtown
enjoyed a 100th birthday celebration
for President Reagan
Then on the way home...it was snowing,
the streets were almost empty and
the city of Chicago seemed sleeping...
except for this fella who dashed in front of our car
on a green light
in a hurry, or cold ,or lost in mindlessness

I thought of how a second
can change one's life
his and ours
and then my mind wandered to
how one man,like Ronald Reagan, can change a country
or one woman, like Rosa Parks,
can change a country's conscience
It is seconds these life changes..words that took seconds to say:
..Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall..
and an action that took seconds:
Rosa Parks not giving up her seat on a bus
Seconds,
big things really happen in seconds
And for us yesterday morning,
I am glad we had seconds
to avoid hitting this man, who never saw us,
busy on his way to I'll never know where

So,I take this second
to thank his angel,
the one that looked
like snow falling on city,
the one that he never saw...