Wise Witch says Universe Speaks, in a language

of Time, Space, wind, water, people, songs.

Anything. Everything. Every Thing. Sometimes

Unbidden. Unwelcome. She comes.

Toasted in traffic. Brain cells fried in a head

hotter than a two-liter engine on high revolution.

Heart scarred to water-pump stiffness, vision

fogged by blood boiled to curdling.  The state

I was in when the messenger forged on, waving

her banner of Sampaguita leis. Deaf, daft, my ears

Deadened by Grateful Dead in a dream—no, a stupor—

yet she wouldn’t surrender, no: She attacked

My window. Eyes tight shut, I refused to witness

this viciousness. It is time. Brows locked in furrows, eyes

slits with a veil of blinds I looked at the atrocity.

She was gone. A doodled smiley stared

right through me. Saying

“Lighten up, will ya, you stupid fool?”