A Moment
There was a moment of weightlessness,
A wonderful moment of floating,
A moment of complete silence,
A moment of slow motion,
Frame
By frame
By frame
By frame.
A moment so quiet, so peaceful,
A moment of heightened senses,
Waitng,watching,
For the inevitable, the unavoidable,
Frame
By frame
By frame
I saw their faces, frozen masks,
Was mine the same?
As we drifted through the air together,
We all saw the mighty oak,
Draw closer and closer,
Moment by moment,
Frame
By frame
The impact,
The deafening, jarring, sickening impact,
The windscreen popped out,
And for a split second, I was jealous.
Jealous that it would enjoy a split second more,
Of the freedom of flight.
I needn't have been,
The body twisting,
Metal screaming to retain it's shape,
My door open and I was airbourne again,
Up, up and away,
My best ever impression of Superman!
Enjoy the moment, I told myself,
A beautiful, graceful, painless moment,
Before the landing.
Just me and four chicken curries,
Amongst the stars.
To be fair, my landing wasn't that bad,
Five metres of flight before connecting with tarmac,
I had visions of people with boards,
Holding up scores,
Take a moment,
And another, to gather my thoughts,
I'm alright but no curry tonight.
- David Gibbs's blog
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WOW!
Dave, what a great write, a truly great write!
I was really drawn into this piece, to the sense of freedom, and the level of intensity the passenger felt. This piece really kept me transfixed and i was left wanting to know more. I also like the layout of the poem, and the use of repetitive words just adds depth to this write.
An idea for a short fiction write prehaps?
Great work Dave,
Debs
Many Thanks Debs
I'm glad you enjoyed this write, I was trying to get across that feeling of everything being in slow motion, the way your senses seem to magnify in situations like this. You know what's coming, can't do a thing about it, and so many thoughts flash through your mind, admittedly a lot of my thoughts are normally fairly random/comical/stupid, but thoughts just the same. I'm rambling now!! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, respect your opinion as always Debs.
FYI: It was a country lane in Wales, after midnight. There was a hump back bridge and the road was quiet, we were travelling very fast, airbourne over the bridge but unfortunatly the road went sharply to the right on the other side. We were very lucky, and walked away (albeit I flew the first bit!), mine was the only door that would open, it opened on impact. We had jokingly made the girl in the front passenger seat wear her seatbelt (this was before it was law), without it I believe she would have been killed that night.
Now I am rambling!! Ha ha
Many thanks again,
Dave
impressively handled
I particularly liked the first three stanzas. You did a great poetic job with a recreation of slow motion. Very hard to do, I'm sure. Maybe by recreating this traumatic experience, you have exorcised the bad memories. It's good that you can look at it with a bit of humor, as well. Takes the sting out.
joyce
Thank You
Thank you Joyce, I'm glad you enjoyed this piece. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on it,
Dave