Promptly Poetry

Intrepid

Intrepid

Her name was Wanda Dabrowski,
not Wander but Vonda,
not owsky but ovski,
a Polish countess in Africa
and now a humble clerk,
fresh from university and brilliant,
but with that dreamy otherworldliness
of a creature too good for normality.
To watch her cross the street
was an education in itself.
Six lanes one way, six the other,
the street fronting our building,
and we’d gather at the windows
when Wanda set out down the steps,
her daily intent to cross the stream
and never mind the crosswalk.
Courage it took to watch her,
in a ruler straight diagonal,
eyes on the goal, the far side,
traffic avoiding her at the last moment,
dodging this way and that,
and Wanda oblivious, intent only
on whatever beckoned from
the other side, never flinching
nor showing that she knew how close
she came to disaster every day.
Like Moses in a reverie, she parted the torrent,
unaware of the wake she left behind
and we, held in fascination,
unable to do more than stare,
knowing too well that uncomprehending
look in her eye if we tried to explain.
In the end we had to admit it was true,
that God protects fools and drunkards
and Wanda Dabrowski.


Line Count: 35
Free Verse (I think)
For Promptly Poetry, 22 June 2020.
Prompt: Imagine a scene or a moment in a crosswalk
Note: Every word of this is true and was instantly recalled to me by the prompt. I don’t know what happened to Wanda but I feel quite sure that she was never involved in a traffic accident, the world parting before her determined tread as it did. And she did throw the most amazing parties at her parent’s mansion in the country.