IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR 04.20.10 prompt "looking back"

In My Rear-view Mirror

She was in the middle of a busy road

Late at night, waving frantically

And drivers had to swerve to avoid

Hitting her; it was disconcerting

I was almost upon her before
I realized she was weeping;
Weeping and trying to keep cars
From running over a dog

A dog, stretched across the
centre line, probably already dead,
but I was by her before I quite took
the scene in, then tried to decide

Should I pull over, go back,
try to help her move her large pet
off the road—I understood how
hard it must have been to see
the dog get hit, killed

But to then have to watch it
get run over and over
By other vehicles, I knew I
Wouldn’t have been able to stand
that either

So there she stood, alone,
Valiantly warding off
cars and trucks, trying to keep
them from running over her dog,
probably already dead, prone,
Stretched across the centre line

Glancing in my rear-view,
As I tried to make up my mind,
I witnessed a miracle;
Two cars, one travelling south,
The other north, had stopped in
The centre lane, right smack in the
Middle of the road, on either side of
The girl and the dog.

They put their flashing hazard lights
On, thereby creating a barrier
Around the two.

I could barely
See as I drove on and found
Myself hoping that maybe the
Dog just looked dead and one
of those drivers was even now
helping the girl get her pet to
the emergency vet
In any case, I knew they would
Help her get the animal
off the road

S.E. Ingraham

(one of my own reasons for
wanting to help ... Farley ...)