If I’d have gone the other way that night,
What would have happened? Stead’ of heading down
Towards Main St., where the cops line up
To snag the unsuspecting college kid,
Who can’t just zigzag home and shut his mouth;
Who chooses his fate by pissing in an alley,
Or in plain view, for everyone to see.

I’d just performed a song, and left the club
With a friend of mine; choices in front of me
Like exit-signs that litter 95—
Be “out,” or have another beer somewhere?
Walk left or right? The crowded drunker path,
Or brave the dark unpeopled lanes of Cresson?
A Yunker or a chicken-steak with mushrooms?
An order of motz-sticks, or just wait to eat
When I got home?

Divine intervention?
Or did my instincts lead me to my car
By way of Main St.’s noise, because they sensed
That something “very bad” was going to happen?
Did something primal lead me from destruction?
From straying bullets, violent tempers, murder?
Or was it the suggestion of my stomach,
Some lesser whisper of mortality
That kept me safe that night? The “need to eat”
Deflecting chaos, keeping me alive?