Mortality on a Wednesday
Death sat waiting at the bus stop
this Wednesday morning
I almost missed him –
he looked so ordinary
just any man in a black hood
so capacious it canopied
his gaunt features
I sat down beside him
occupied with the usual
day-to-day matters
errands and dinner
and so forth – maybe
a thought or two of love
but not of mortality
I didn’t recognize him
at first because the scythe
was hidden – he might
have been almost any
robed figure stepped down
from a stained-glass window
one of the three wise men
perhaps but I don’t think
of Death as particularly wise
being so indiscriminate
in his visitations
I take that same bus
most days and
for all I know
he does too
Sally Zakariya’s poetry has appeared in some 75 print and online journals and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her most recent publication is Muslim Wife (Blue Lyra Press, 2019). She is also the author of The Unknowable Mystery of Other People, Personal Astronomy, When You Escape, Insectomania, and Arithmetic and other verses, as well as the editor of a poetry anthology, Joys of the Table. Zakariya blogs at www.butdoesitrhyme.com.
