Train Wreck 9/29/16 by Jerry Durick

Train Wreck 9/29/16

Train wrecks, like this one, are apropos of nothing. If we could only prepare for them

And have them occur when we are in condition to cope with their seeming abruptness,

The surprise of them, have them occur when we can plan our schedule around them,

Call off meetings and appointments, set aside other plans, other considerations.

Have them occur when our emergency folks are primed and standing by, hospitals ready

For the “walking wounded” and the others, operating rooms ready, ICUs and morgues.

They are apropos of nothing, or perhaps they are apropos of everything we live with.

Our morning is traveling on, on track, our day is set with routine, the expected, and

Then they interrupt the regular program with a bulletin and then our day becomes yet

Another train wreck, like the others we have lived through, or didn’t.

J. K. Durick is a writing teacher at the Community College of Vermont and an online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Social Justice Poetry, Tuck Magazine, Yellow Chair Review, Synchronized Chaos, and Haikuniverse.