R.M. Engelhardt

The Gift

My stepson
Was almost
Killed in a car
Accident today

A woman
Not paying attention
Drove thru a
Red light, crashing
Into the front
Of his car
The car smashed
In broken like an old
Accordion
The air bag
Inflating on
Contact his
Fear suddenly
Taking over screaming
Then realizing
Shortly there
After that he had
Came very close

To death

But somehow
Someway he
Walked away
Uninjured with
Only slight scratches
And bruises to his
Hands the woman that
Hit him also alive
Yet slightly sore
And confused

And how this happened
How this occurred
Where both drivers
Were fine is almost
An impossibility
A percentage unimagined
Perhaps even a
Miracle that my mind
In this everyday world of destruction
And mass chaos cannot
Even begin to comprehend

But last night

My wife had a
Dream, a nightmare
In which her son
Was in a car accident
But in which he did
Not live

But died

So she prayed

For our angels
Go unseen their
Godforsaken
And yet still
Care, love without
Measure

There must be
Something more
Than only

This

 


R.M. Engelhardt is an American poet & writer who is the author of several books over the last two decades including Coffee Ass Blues & Other Poems, The Last Cigarette: The Collected Poems of R.M. Engelhardt, The Resurrection Waltz, and others. His work has also been published by such journals as Retort, Red Fez, Rusty Truck, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Thunder Sandwich, Fashion For Collapse, 2nd Avenue, The Angry Poet, Winedrunk Sidewalk, Full of Crow, The Outlaw Poetry Network, The Rye Whiskey Review & in many others. His new book of poetry is entitled Dark Lands published by Whiskey City Press, 2019.