Fight or Flight

                        “This may sound like gibberish to you,

                        but I think I’m in a tragedy.”

                                                --Stranger than Fiction

When he reads that the bus comes to squash the boy,

the hero is ready to face his fate, confront the bus.

He knew he had to die.

He knew his story.

But then some sentimental alien

toys with him, plays deus ex machina

on his ass and heart,

plunges him into comedy.

And they all know he needed to die

for the fiction to work.

They all know saving the boy

and dying in his stead

is the only way to make great art—

his knowing choice to give his life,

his love, his world

to save the innocent.

He rejects the instinct to stay on the curb.

He steps out, pushes the child to safety,

stands in front of the bus,

willing to die a hero’s death.

The audience and author can’t bear it,

insist on a tired happy-ever-after ending

Refuse to fight it. Rewrite. Revise.

They flee greatness in the end.