Driving along a mountain road
a rock loosened from a cliff face,
man and car crushed like an ant by a thumb.

A second from impact
to certain death can room within it
all the agony and pain the world has ever known.

A flash of clarity, the final truth,
there is but one
and it can’t be retold.

Rusty radiator, water dripped into unpaved road
and for an awestruck moment
the silence vibrated.