Page 38 - The Irony Board
P. 38

Into the Body


              Comparing harms,
              What attacked us
              Gave false alarms
              If it backed us
              Into the arms
              Of a cactus.

             Things can be worse; and often are, in retrospect. Retreat from a
         threat in front may lead not to safety but the  spiny embrace  of a
         greater threat to the rear. This is another sort of gamble, the known
         danger  against  the  unknown  or  unexpected,  taken  instinctively  in
         reaction to immediate stimuli. An alarm may be judged false only in
         retrospect.























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