Poem 451

I’m using n here as the algebraic letter representing an unknown quantity or number … it references the number of vehicles in a collision but more so the almost infinite number of contingencies involved in any ‘accident’ and the impossibility of controlling those contingencies … the idea that even in an unpeopled universe you’re going to run into something and that ‘something’ is your fate … the last image is a time conundrum – what if the ambulance shows up before your accident then becomes your accident when you run into the back of it, so your fate is/was always inescapable …

( I like the way the hallucinogenic feel of this suggests the tunnel vision trancelike state of driving … unreal/unreel … the rhymes of the third stanza … and the way the slightly mysterious n-way is resolved by the last word of the poem … )

N-Way

It was an n-way crash
time the shortened spoke
flipped free

an n-way crash
wipers removing blood
where the rubbers are good
spreading a band
where they aren't

driving into rain
on the motorway
fields unreal
on either side
unreel

n-way crash
hands at the ten to two position
erect upper torso
wheeling into tomorrow
the straight and narrow
typewriter ribbon of road
and all alone
all the lines
and the lanes
your own

ahead on the horizon
the firework burst of lights
open back doors
of the crash
that happens
anyway