"What?"

What?

To the people
on the outside, the
ones left alive, it
appears to happen
so suddenly but
to the one inside,
it seems to take
hours for the car
to spin around in
slow motion like a
satellite in space.
Folding metal
sounds like
playing cards
being shuffled.
Rivets popping off
float to the ground
like goose down.
No one knows
any of this because
the one in the car
can’t come back and
say, “Let me tell you
all about it.
It’s not what you
think it was. It didn’t
feel how you
think it felt.”
Because of that,
you don’t know if
what I tell you
is true; all you can do
is make this up and
pretend to hear me
say it to you just
like you’re doing
right now.

©JEF 1998