A Tanka and a Haiku

[la_peregrina]

An old man fought back
against a would-be robber.
Then the knife came out.
So I ask myself this:  Was
he a brave man or a fool?

Those hands had known work,
and those arms had known labor.
Old man died fighting.

I actually hope he was a widower, that he left no one behind him to miss him and by turns curse him for a stubborn fool.  Perhaps if he had known a knife would be put in play, he would have acted differently.  This man was stocky and robust.  There might have been a beer belly evident, but there was muscle underneath.  In short, he was a man after my Brian, and was not about to back down to a punk-skinny kid.  He was also only two years older than the age Brian would have been had he lived.  Unfortunately, the kid had speed on his side, and the knife.  No cell phone is worth a life.  Yet if given the choice, I'm almost morally certain Brian would have preferred to go out quickly, fighting on the street, than fighting slowly in a hospital bed.  But both men did fight.

I hope the young man gets put away for a very, very, very long time.