Poem #12--On the Way Home From School

On the way home from school

I drove past

a very recent car accident.

Pieces of bumper

were scattered

in the intersection.

A bicycle lay on its side

but the cyclist seemed

in better condition than

the driver of the

mangled car.

Emergency vehicles were not there yet

but lots of people were

milling about.

I drove slowly past

thinking about how quickly

a life can change.

Thinking about driving home

to my college dorm

after a day of student teaching.

Driving the

bright green

Chevy Monza

my dad named Kermit.

Working on memorizing a poem

as I drove.

Deliberately

pausing

at the 4-way stop at the top of the hill.

Stopping before the last line of the poem.

Saying out loud,

"I have wasted my life" *

and looking up to see

the other car

running through the stop

smashing my driver's side door

changing my life

in

an

instant.

I no longer memorize poetry

while I drive.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

* Dang. I can't find (or remember) the poem I was trying to memorize. Seems like it had the word Minnesota in it, and the speaker was lounging in a hammock. Sound familiar? I'll keep looking...

I FOUND IT!!!

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

James Wright