One Must Be Careful Poem by Donal Mahoney

Someone you respect
does something that sticks
in your craw like a fish bone
dining in a crab shack.

You try to cough it up
but the bone is stuck
and won't come out.

Someone nearby tries
the Heimlich maneuver
but that doesn't work

The person responsible
has no idea he caused it.
Simply an oversight
or he just forgot
something important
to you.

He never sees you again
because you die coughing
in the crab shack
and he wonders
what happened to you.

But your ghost visits him
every equinox at midnight
and whispers in his ear that
in dealing with people
one must be careful.