Saved by Death

forest downpour heard first in the treetops

i picture a cinematic rain of arrows

or maybe small frogs like the two in the road earlier

one still moving the other just bones and wasps

i took picture after picture on my phone which now

rests like a joey in a dry pocket

soon the gravel road is two torrents

and i am a turtle hunched under poncho and umbrella

and half a heartbeat behind the flash of lightning

a deafening crash up where i would’ve walked

had i not stopped for death and taken pictures