I was traveling down the road
On a pleasant Sunday afternoon
Music on the radio
My hands firmly on the wheel
When suddenly
The van I was following swerved to the right
A wall of gray appeared in front of my windshield
Slammed into me like a hammer
A second later, the car behind
Stepping on the brakes
Plowed into my rear.
Stunned
I took two deep breaths
And staggered out the door…
No one was hurt—only minor cuts and bruises
But the cars were demolished.
It seems a trailer had broken from its rig
Careened into my lane and smashed into my car.
Had the angle been slightly different, I might have been
Decapitated.
There was no time to avoid the impact.
Nothing I could have done.
I was lucky to be alive.
Or unlucky that the trailer came unhitched.
Or was it luck at all to be on this particular road
At this particular moment in time?
In the way of the world
There will always be questions
Without answer
Things that are beyond our comprehension
Forces over which we have
No control.
(Previously published in Some Words: A Place For Poetry, Nov - Dec '99)
Laurence Overmire
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-control-2/
