Bad things are going to happen...
There's a Buddhist story of a woman chased by a tiger.
When she comes to a cliff, she sees a sturdy vine
and climbs halfway down. Bit there's also a tiger below.
And two mice - one white, one black - scurry out and begin to gnaw at the vine.
At this point she notices a wild strawberry growing from a crevice.
She looks up, down, at the mice.
Then she eats the strawberry.
So here's the view, the breeze, the pulse in your throat.
Your wallet will be stolen, you'll get fat,
slip on the bathroom tiles of a foreign hotel and crack your hip. You'll be lonely.
Oh, taste how sweet and tart the red juice is, how the tiny seeds crunch between your teeth.
(Ellen Bass, b. 1947)