Mortality is a funny thing. One second, one split second, can be the difference between life and death, injury and health, this mortal coil or the realms above.

If he'd been a few kays faster I'd be dead. Twisted heap of metal lying forlornly in the centre of the road. Two heaps. Him and me. Battered, broken, shattered, forgotten. Glass in tiny pieces being brushed away by brooms, voices marking faceless bodies in the shift of clustered people. Phrases here and there, voices clustering to be heard.

What does it mean? Who knows, who really knows, who can care? I am not dead. I am alive. Thank you guardian angel. Thank you Lord. I will offer up a prayer to you each time I pass a church now for you deserve it. You have saved my life when I thought I was dead.

You deserve a prayer.

Cops like crawling beetles scurrying over slick hosed surface. Paramedics in their box on wheels, big fat cross adorning the sides. Helping. Nameless faces, faceless names but people. Sirens blare and tow truck comes. Write-offs torn apart and loaded onto trays as the traffic goes around.

It goes on. Minutes later fragments wiped away. Nothing left to say what went on here, nothing yet to remind the victims or observers of the fate that took its path.

Mortality is indeed strange. One flicker, and it's all over. We're all ants, really. Scurry, scatter, does it matter, where will you go today? Who cares. Just Do It. Take The Plunge. Dare To Dream. Squash. Die. Perish. Stars winking out. Preview of coming attractions.

How important are we when we snuff out like fragile candles? Melting tallow with only ashes for a wick.

Say goodbye, say your prayers, bid adieu and au revoir; are we coming back tomorrow? we put things off to another day but will we have the days to see them done? When you're young you think you're invincible and you have all the time in the world.

Snap out of it.

You don't. You're only here for a second and only God can tell how long your second will last. Don't abuse it. It always seems to happen to someone else but remember that to everyone around you and everyone you don't know that you are 'somebody else' and there's one heck of a lot more of them than there are of you. Makes you about 0.05% important and 99.95% someone else.

And we know accidents always happen to someone else.

That's the mortal way. And what are we but mortal?
Ants. That's what.

How many ants did you squash today? Check your boot heels when you get home. Maybe a friend will have died there. Maybe you'll die under theirs tomorrow.