Alive, full of life - - <br />laughing at jokes, I imagine, <br />grooving to the music on the radio <br />20 miles from his destination - - <br />Can't wait, can't wait to get home <br /> <br />But, he's dead now, finally lying, <br />spread-eagled on the road <br />not yet cold <br /> <br />And all I see are old black shoes, <br />shoes pointing my way <br />and a blanket-covered body <br />(so small... so young) <br />as our car, lavish with life, glides by <br /> <br />I've never seen a fresh-dead person <br />Never seen someone whose <br />last moment in life, first in death <br /> <br />caused so much confusion <br />(why are we not moving?) <br />anger (WHY are we still not moving? !) <br />then, bitter tears for the loss <br />(Oh, God......) <br /> <br />Rescue workers wandered alone, <br />foiled, forlorn, unfulfilled in the mission <br />to quicken the dead <br /> <br />He was alive, so alive, only <br />moments ago... like you, like me <br />full of plans, full of life, full of self - - <br />empty now, dead body on the road <br />Does he know that it only took a moment? ... <br /> <br /> <br />(4.18.06 - On the long drive to Disney World, of all places. So very sad.)<br /><br />Esther Leclerc<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/one-moment/
