Senior

"I was so mentally screwed up that I stayed with him."

when I was fourteen a senior at my school

turned down the radio and then picked up his phone

and looked down to find half of his body severed at

the waist, a tree where his feet used to feel the ground

beneath them. they say he lived for three hours

after the accident because the car he had totaled

was holding him so tightly that the metal acted

as a tourniquet and gave him a death so slow i

wonder if his mother showed up to hold his hand 

or she stayed at home so she wouldn't have to

see what happened.

i wonder if i saw you coming like the tree saw

the incoming vehicle, spreading out his branches to

stop my friend from crashing into something 

else. i wonder if i always knew you were dangerous,
if when we kissed it tasted like squealing breaks 

and skinned knees and burning rubber and

guard rails ripped from their homes, i wonder 

if i knew you were my end and i still pressed

down on the accelerator. i keep staring at

my hands, trying to find the part of me

you used to make up but it's just kind of 

gone, and god, this hurts so bad it almost

doesn't hurt at all.

i was always good at compartmentalizing.

maybe i will get drunk and tell you 

everything. maybe i will be friends with that

new girl you're seeing. maybe i'm already dead

and i just haven't actually realized it yet.

Reviews

[fwvalidus]

Wow... this is a really good piece. Well-written, great imagery and description. I don't really have much else to say other than the fact that this worked so well, it flowed immaculately, and it ended better than I could have imagined it. How much time went into the writing of this poem of yours? I'm sorry that more people have not had the chance to stumble over this and review it!

[Aaron the Baron]

What a unique telling of an event. Deeply moving.
i keep staring at
my hands, trying to find the part of me
you used to make up but it's just kind of
gone, and god, this hurts so bad it almost
doesn't hurt at all.

Left me breathless.

[caisrusso]

Wow, thank you.