Common Misconceptions About a Car Crash

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. This piece was written several days ago about a bad crash I was in. I'll post more work hopefully soon.

They say, when it happens,
Your whole life should flash
Before your eyes.

 

The only thing that
Flashed before mine
Was the truck,

 

Seconds before it
Slammed into us,

 

Shattered the window,
Caved in the door,

 

Seconds before impact...

 

For a moment it was like a snowstorm of glass,
Glittering in the air,

I saw the dazzling lights,

Tasted the bitter dough
Of my breakfast roll,
Was content.

 

The moment seemed infinite,
So that I began to wonder
If it were a dream.

 

Then the glass pierced my hands and face,
Like the stingers of a thousand angry diamond hornets,
The car was flung away from the point of impact,
My eyes and mouth filled with pulverized glass
As the car door wrapped around my side.

 

They never talk about the heat
In a bad crash.
The way the metal heats up around you
And for a moment it seems as if you are on fire.

 

Or that what seems like it should be the loudest thing
You ever experience, ends up being the quietest.

 

How you never hear the shattering glass,
The scrape and banshee scream
Of metal on metal,

 

How you think that you're whispering to yourself
Over and over again,
"Oh my god, oh my god oh my god!"

But really, you're screaming,
Eyes wide, spitting glass,
Stark raving mad and dripping your own blood
Onto an old torn coat.

 

In that moment, blood soaked,
Terrified and trapped,
You feel nothing.

 

My life didn't flash before my eyes.
I wish it had...

 

Because now,
Every time I close my eyes,
I see that moment.

 

It is projected on the inside of my eyelids,
The scorching hot burnt negative
Of the memory raked
Into my abraded corneas.

 

The common misconception about a car crash
Is that the point of impact is the scariest part.

 

For me the scariest part,
Was my doctor's admission
That I shouldn't have survived.

 

I don't want to go out anymore.

 

I don't feel safe anymore.

 

I don't even know if I'm too afraid to ride in a car anymore!

 

I just know that I'm too afraid to sleep.

Reviews

[lyss]

This is so accurate and genuine. I wish that horrible things didn't happen to good people, but they do. It's hard to get over what you experienced, but you can't let the fear of it stop you from living your life. You survived for a reason and now you're going to live for a reason.