I Took a Trip

Photo: Kathy Koch.

I just took one long and painful trip around the sun. Glad I was able to make it. Last year on June 23rd, I was T-boned at an intersection on a country road by someone going fast. I never saw him coming.

I had to be cut out of my car.

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It went like this:

sunday drive
 
metal hits metal and flesh is thrown about
instantly, impersonally.
bones break, but instincts take over
and i attempt to flee this sudden hell.

fleeing proves futile, but a rescue is made
as pain grows and envelopes like
an invisible casket,
a malevolent encasement,
heavier each hour.

i look up from the gurney, at
three or four men looking down.
"do you pray? pray for me?" i ask them.
"you're lucky to be here," i hear back.

i struggle to breathe
the oxygen mask smothers me.
i want it off. they keep it on,
and won't let me move.

I had several broken bones and soft tissue injuries. I spent a couple weeks in the hospital, and the rest of the year at home, recovering, going to physical therapy, and then trying to find some sort of productive daily routine.  Overall, my recovery took 14 months. I still have pain.

So, I wasn't able to go to my first gallery reception for my photography show at Waterloo Studios, which was what my last post was about,  a year ago. The reception was five days after the crash. That was a huge disappointment. But...I'm alive.