Jaws of Life

Business went well in Rosemont Illinois
and Scott's talking and laughing in the back seat with Joy.
He should have been resting for the past eight hours
instead of tempting and testing Fate's merciless powers.
It's that lack of forethought that inevitably wrecks us,
It's still a long drive back down to Dallas Texas.
We should have pulled over for a couple of hours
but Daemon had midterms the next day,
and he wasn't about to miss those.
Dead or alive, it was Scott's turn to drive.
It was his shift, my thoughts drift....
No heat, feet freezing, crammed in the back seat
wondering what state we'd be in when I woke....
cold, cramped comfortable darkness.....
....I awoke to the deep bellowing guttural yell of a semi truck's
horn unceasingly releasing its warning cry
Bright lights grew before us as they eased slowly towards the left.
One thunderous quake of mutilated metal
pounding against an unshakable titan.
Fate's furious face shakes the container of existence.
The windshield erupted into a thousand fiery tendrils of lightning
as we hit the second two wheels of the cab,
twisting backwards into darkness
before hitting the last two wheels of the trailer
then sliding on forward into blind oblivion
before final silence and stillness.
I yelled at Joy to get out of the front seat,
but pretty Joy was pretty bruised up and beaten.
She managed to ease the seat up enough for me to squeeze out.
I helped her limp to the side of the road.
Then back for Daemon,
I threw a couple suitcases onto the street.
His face was pretty bloodied up and dazed like my own
He said he might have broken his leg.
I helped him slide out and hop to the edge of the highway.
Then back for Scott.......fuck.....
He begged me to help him out of the car
but I couldn't with the steering wheel wedged into his chest.
I did my best, and told him I couldn't help him.
He asked me why I wouldn't open the door and help him out like the others.
He didn't understand that there was no door anymore,
just a mangled mass of crumpled metal wrapped around his body.
I knew that he was yelling as loud as he could, wind flailing through
the rasping failing whispers between the gurgling spurts of barfed up blood.
I watched the emergency vehicles arrive, then rushing to keep my friend Scott alive.
I stepped aside into the nearby distance, unable to offer any further assistance
Several cars had already stopped on the blocked off road,
most of the occupants standing outside, staring like hazy ghosts
watching a twisted game show in the slow growing glow
of the approaching dawn,
awaiting to see behind door number one,
to see what the newest contestant had won.-
Waiting to witness what lied there inside--
as the clicking hands of time crept around--
The arms of Death spread open wide--
as the jaws of life clamped down