Coming and Going

Coming Glass and metal spread across the freeway. Something like a melon, open, and dragged, seeds and flesh intermixed on the freeway. A families dreams, destroyed, on hold, shredded and ended. What of the slow procession, passerbys, looky-looks, rubber neckers, just for a moment does their discussion cease, their hearts sink at the sight. The wreckers truck stays their studied interest, do they peek, Does stomach drop, head spin at the sight or do they avoid the look they do not seek to know? It could not apply to them for they certainly would not be so careless, and yes,life for them is just marvelous. And Going Once passed the horrid carnage of the crash, as the view receded in the mirror, the memory too, late meeting, loose lash, exigencies of the day, perhaps, stir up the old habits and the gas pedal goes back down and the race begins anew. The gore is replaced by heavy metal on the radio, turned down for a few minutes but now, thankfully, all things are normal. And at end of the day when you are asked by a spouse or a friend, "How far were you from that crash on 680?" Do you stop a second, having forgot all. A family died, maybe hard to recall.