Kick in the Jaw
       

Sometimes the zebra wins. And the sound
of the savanna goes on—birdsong, frog croak,

beetle chitter, occasional grunt of a warthog,
hard panting of the cheetah after chase—

as the lion walks slowly away, bleeding
from the mouth, staring ahead, looking for a place

to rest and await a slow starvation. Sometimes
the savanna's ambient song is interrupted

by a sharp crack that sounds like a gunshot,
the zebra's kick finding the lion's jaw.

Some stories get rewritten. Sometimes
the lion dies. Always the sound goes on.

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Copyright © 2019 Dan Albergotti All rights reserved
from The Southern Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission