A Spectacular Nonsense.
I saw the lights ahead of me,
Exploding into, and then merging with
The sky, like fireworks.
What is this spectacular nonsense
That is holding up the traffic?
And then I knew.
The U-Turns told me so.
The hard-hatted men in red trucks
Showed me so.
Oh God, I said. Someone died,
Up ahead.
A limp white cloth covered a figure
On a stretcher.
The street came out to watch,
To see the gore and smashed up
Van with the Jaws still slicing through.
Yet all I could see
Was that stretcher, with that paramedic
Staring at the ground and trying so very hard
To imagine someplace else.
Exploding into, and then merging with
The sky, like fireworks.
What is this spectacular nonsense
That is holding up the traffic?
And then I knew.
The U-Turns told me so.
The hard-hatted men in red trucks
Showed me so.
Oh God, I said. Someone died,
Up ahead.
A limp white cloth covered a figure
On a stretcher.
The street came out to watch,
To see the gore and smashed up
Van with the Jaws still slicing through.
Yet all I could see
Was that stretcher, with that paramedic
Staring at the ground and trying so very hard
To imagine someplace else.