byLuci Tapahonso
- they were returning from Gallup late at night
- singing with the radio and laughing
- he was driving too fast too fast
- he missed the curve
- the crash the immediate silence
- they whimpered as
- the warm blood spread into the cold asphalt cracks
- amidst the glass and tangled metal their bodies writhed
- moaning and crying until they rose above
- they left then watching in silence
- oh the soothing silence
- the incredible serenity
- they rose leaving the steaming blood
- ticking of metal settling down
- the tinkle of glass slipping
- the tin whine of a dying radio
- they gather with others now
- in the thin darkness
- airy, light ghosts sometimes they talk laughing
- standing in little groups
- waiting to befriend anyone
- who might happen along
- they are happy
- on the flat plateau of that other world: death
- that quiet pleasure
- they are all together now.
From A Breeze Swept Through by Luci Tapahonso, West End Press.
© 1987 Luci Tapahonso