vignette / you’re at home

it’s uneventful.

you’re fixing a salad.

you’re slicing a carrot.

you’re daydreaming.

the blade and index finger

meet at the down-slide.

the bleeding is immediate,

but the pain takes a moment

to register in the brain.

you see, the brain was preoccupied

with the complex process of slicing a carrot.

adding to its confusion, your daydream, which

might’ve amounted to something.

the brain reacts.

the pain is real. the blood is real.

the carrot's done for.

so's the salad.