The Crash

You will capture the whole scene
Shuffling backward in that way across time
Impossibly
The head swiveling, the ankles clicking

You will see it
The beginning and end
From your perch above the power lines
The crash

Watching the story arc play
And when the first sound fades out, and the colors all blend
The end of the line is straight until the last word's written
Like that's how life works
Like it all just stops there
But it isn't, and doesn't
And we don't either

It's everything before was and is too at the same time
Life and death stacked like ribs to hold the lungs and heart
Inside a body that rejects them, so why try?
And still you float

Seek the streets of home and here
To find the tragedy, to tell its story
And still you follow, close enough to see
The shattered glass catch light, and shine back
Until some meaning appears
Or gets shaken from your hair into the shower drain
That morning you dressed and left the driveway on shorn lug nuts

But why write the ending at all?
Why not just the middle?
Why not loop the whole thing always, on the wall and just watch?
Backwards and forwards at the same time superimposed
Why death only and not endless directionless life?
From birth unto it that blurs in tears at both ends
But cancels out, because it all does

One life and death echoing down the pipe
Before and after, through time and us too
Traffic merging on the road before the pavements been laid

You would see it
The beginning and end
From your perch above the power lines