I've tinkered with this as much as I can, but I still don't think it's a "poem." It is a true story, though.
Road Traffic Accident 1
The local policeman brought you the news,
and you phoned the hospital.
– There's a lot of blood,
they said,
head, chest and stomach injuries.
And when you asked,
– Will he live?
the answer was non-committal.
Leaving the children with neighbours,
you drove the twenty-seven miles,
not knowing if you were already a widow.
I'm in bed.
I know I'm in hospital.
It's the third bed I've been in,
but I don't remember the other two.
I don't remember anything much
of the last few days,
unconscious most of the time.
The nurse tells me,
– You were unconscious
when I cut your underpants away,
but you still told me to bugger off.
The police came to ask me
about the accident.
I remembered I was on the way to work,
and I remembered it was Thursday,
because I knew
what classes I was going to teach that day,
but I didn't remember
anything after that.
I had smashed my little bubble-car
straight into a brand-new motor
that was coming up the hill.
I was going downhill.
Oh yes,
there was a red line at the 50
on the speedometer
of my dear old friend
(now written off)
to remind me
of the maximum safe engine speed.
So, any time the needle got to the red line,
I just had to touch the brake.
Only it's February, cold in the mornings,
maybe frosty on the cold side of the hills...
I must have skidded.
I don't remember,
just worked it out
on the balance of probabilities.
I had broken my neck,
all the tendons torn,
only muscle to hold my head on.
And all that blood?
No chest or stomach injuries,
just a scalp wound,
but scalp wounds do bleed,
don't they?
I don't remember the accident.
Traumatic amnesia, they told me, is normal,
my brain protecting me from shock;
the memory might come back any time.
But it never did.
I'm glad.
I can do without
recurring nightmares.
Thanks Lord that you are no longer an Amnesiac:) The miracle of life you can always enjoy with your photographic memory.Wonderfully written one of the major chapters from the book of your life.
A lovely narration of what happened to you, you were blessed!
I specially like reading true stories, thank God you are with us. Thank you for sharing.
Good you can write about the awful accident and post it now Paul - - happenings like this are best kept low-key once they are over and lack of memory can keep flash-backs at bay. A broken neck would seem enough to be coping with but when you have had such a narrow escape it would be deemed the better of other evils. Hope the return to health is fairly complete by now. Thanks for sharing the account with usin this clearly written piece.
A fine read. Good to know you're still here. :-)
True stories make for good poems. Glad you survived that one! Life is very fragile and no more is love felt than in times of tragedy and need. Good you have someone you can depend on.
it's a very good poem in the imagist vein, simple straight as an arrow, letting the reader finish the emotional connections (nothing but the facts ma'am).