switchbait

six dogs trapped in a car
in distress bear is driving
how can that be the dogs
eyes white and round 
no visible pupils 

to the teacher the moral
of this scene: blank

their eyes 
seen 

white

equals
round 

help for hours! now
their dog beg eyes 
all round

the careening speed trap

police nowhere 
responding to calls why
why 

the dogs' eyes! so
whine like sirens
giving bad yelp
review to cops 
sleeping in stolen
vehicles staging
their hidden stings 
viciously no help 

dogs are trapped, eyes

signal horror help
trapped in the car
the dog eye signals
horror help! to man

hero of the piece he 

swoops down like vendetta itself crashes
his convenient machine: a courage device
of his own, and barely invincible 

knowing his own death many times 
(a fantasist an emotional verbal self-abusism 
pro: paid for this!) "damn my day off" he

leaps from it compassionately
this exploding wreck 

of a man sensing

the dogs
sensing
distress bear
-ing up down tight now 

as best 
we can 

under car conditions he 
ripped the door from its only hinge
using jaws of his own life at a speed
approximating terror
terror

terror kilometers in an empathy second 
which

is much shorter than any 

human second the dogs

waited loyally eight years
to be rescued from their car slash
trap slash home but the bear 
evilly 

was lost on the road 
until the man 
sensing heroism in

the bear ate him