She was nine and waking up
A bicycle so red was hers today
Learn to cycle was her goal
So her father taught her well
~~
And she was cycling every day
I saw her coming home from school
And leave the house again to play
~~
He had been out with friends
A beer or two, and he was glad
In shiny car he eased his way
To come home to wife and child
~~
He never saw her coming out
And being numbed by drinks
That night he came too late
~~
And she is ten and waking up
Her shiny wheelchair by her bed
She calls for mom to help her out
And the she can almost get to school
~~
And today she’s nearly glad again
Some dreams are crushed of course
But other plans now fills her mind
~~
He thinks about the things he did
Evicted from the home she kept
But the pains are only for himself
And he opens up another beer
~~
Today he’s sober and he has a car
It’s rusty but it handles well enough
With the speed for painless death
~~
A crash against a mountain cliff
No braking tracks were there to see
His funeral a lonely one, and brief
But she recalls he took her bike away
~~~~
The consequences of drinking and driving are too sad to think about. Fortunately the story-poem is purely an imagined one, but I am sure it has happened many times.
October 7, 2012