Home » Poems » Caren Krutsinger » One of Those Days You Remember

One of Those Days You Remember

I was driving along on a summer’s day
Windows down, loving my life 
The radio was playing seventies music
The Beatles, Cher, Bette Midler, Mamas and Papas
It was one of those days when you know everything is going right.
But alas, it was not to be 
For I suddenly realized I was driving ninety miles an hour on gravel
And there was no way to make the T turn up ahead
So said “God, I’ve had a great life!” knowing this was the end.
I did not ask for help. I had an utter knowing it was over.
I hit a huge earth embankment at about seventy-five miles an hour
I closed my eyes right before I hit.

You know how they tell you that you look down and see your body?
I felt complete and utter disappointment that I was still in my body.
What the heck happened? I was supposed to die.
Upon reflection years later, I wondered at the complete feeling of utter disappointment.
The only thing I can figure out is that death is better than earth life.
Because I was TOTALLY disappointed.
And before this I never knew I would ever want to die.

So I sat here, in the country, before cell phones, wondering what I would do next.
Were my legs crushed? Was my back broken? Was my neck broken?
Was I dead and I was not smart enough to know it?
I opened the car door and got out.
Expecting to fall but I did not.
I waved down another car and they took me back to town.
I ran in the house and yelled to my husband “give me the keys to your truck!”
He said “where is your car?”
It was the third one I had totaled in about eighteen months.
I had to wrestle him for those damned keys.

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