Car Crash

I only remember headlights
and vaguely my own scream.

It didn't feel real at all
more so like a bad dream.

I awoke in a metal tomb.
My car twisted beyond repair.

I crawled out through the shattered window.
Thank God it was just a scare.

"I'm alive." I thought, amazed
as I trudged on towards my house.

And when I reached the door
I tiptoed in, quiet as a mouse.

On the couch my mother slept.
I did not want to wake her yet.

So I slipped up to my room,
into bed I quickly crept.

When I woke up the next morning,
my house was oddly quiet.

My mother hadn't come to wake me.
I'd expected a terrible riot.

I found them both downstairs.
My Mom and my Dad.
They looked tired and badly shaken
but worse, inexplicably sad.

The words came pouring out.
"I'm sorry please forgive me!"

But they didn't seem to hear
Only stared at their coffee dimly.

"Mom, Dad I said I'm sorry!
Believe me I will pay!"

But again they didn't speak.
My Dad began to pray.

On the table sprawled out wide,
was the newspaper they always read.

I looked at my parent's eyes.
Both were rimmed with red.

I took another step closer
To get a better look

of the article that read
"Fatal car crash near Bendsbrooke."

"Funny." I thought to myself.
"That's were I wrecked last night."

Then I froze with terror
at the picture to the right.

It was a picture of myself.
Back when I was just fifteen.

I rubbed my eyes and gasped.
Swallowed back a scream.

I shook my mother hard.
"Mom, that's wrong I'm here!"

But she was rigid as a stone.
Her body didn't teeter.

I rocked my Dad as well.
His body just as still.
They both seemed to just ignore me.
My scream rang loud and shrill.