on the road some truck
or car’s wheel having
flattened it into oblivion
like a steamrolled character
in an absurd Disney cartoon
though this poor creature
will never rise up again
its frenetic activity
erased in an instant
leading me to think
our little lives amount
to but this, more or less,
when all is said and done,
one moment full of purpose
scurrying about our business
yet in the twinkling of an eye
extinguished into nothingness.