Crash Test

- I had a very vivid dream last night and when I woke up this morning this poem wrote itself in my mind. It was one of those dreams where I'm halfway between conciousness and sleep and I wake up feeling as if it had actually happened and confusion hits me when I realize it didn't. Well, here it is:

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Crash Test

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He calmly waits

With furrowed brow

Clenching tightly to the letter

Sand up his legs

Hes happy now

-

The car pulls up

He sits on down

And through the countryside they wind

Around the bend into the town

-

Engulfed, however, in this letter

Oblivious to all around

A hope in him things will get better

-

Thats when they hit

The screeching sound

The violent jerk

It all slows down

-

Thrown from his seat

The airbag pops

Twisted metal

A sudden stop

-

Smoke in the air

His letter gone

The whole thing caught him unaware

-

Bandages around his head

He wakes up in the hospital

His mother presumed him dead

-

But up he stands inside this room

"I feel just fine, I want to go"

"Lay down my son, you're badly hurt

Relax a while, you'll be better soon"

-

Instead he grabs his clothes

Walks out the door

And runs back to the town

Bandages wrap his head no more

-

The cars are gone but not the glass

Still traffic moves just as before

Defeated he falls down on the grass

-

"The letters gone"

What could he do?

He needed it

He needed you

-

For years and years

He wouldn't drive

Never did he get too far

From the only place that he felt alive

-

The crash had more than corpal cost

The world moved on while still he sat

As if he died, he still felt lost

-

But then one day he got out of bed

Walked out the door holding his keys

Despite a ringing in his head

-

He sat on down behind the wheel

Turned the keys and drove away

Through the canyon trail he rode

Simply soaking in the day

-

The first time in years he felt alive

The pistons churning

The gear in five

-

The sun was warm

The wheel was hot

He was reborn

-

The corner blind

The driver drunk

Back from the war

Who would have thunk

-

Crossing the line

The breakpads squeeled

In one quick motion

He jerked the wheel

-

Off the road his car did slide

Hanging over the countryside

-

His fate uncertain

His future there

Was hanging with him

By a hair

-

His life had passed him by

Afraid to live

Afraid to die