Unexpected Leopards

Part of the trouble is that I’ve never properly understood that some disasters accumulate, that they don’t all land like a child out of an apple tree.  Janet Burroway, American writer, b. 1937

Each day, so much goes right.
I find my keys, there is ample
hot water and food, the neighbors smile.

Still, you just never know. Things
can go wrong more ways than leopards
have spots. Trouble can crouch

and spring from shadows you don’t
even see. Last year, one by one, four people
dear to me died. Though

they were elderly, each death
knocked me flat. Inside me, right now,
is a singing joy. It is gigantic,

like a huge blue rooster, ready
to break open a new dawn. And yet,
something else could be waiting

overhead, breathing with quiet
malevolence. Really, how
can we ever know?

Leslie Schultz

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