ACCIDENT
Fall. Flat. Sky and faces. She waves. Don’t die,
he hears. Silence. Cool clouds slide past his pain.
An itch. Hurts some. Light in his dimming eyes.
Closed. Flat. Sky-cold faces wave. Two dice
rattle his backbone. Don’t nod. Don’t try
to move. Breathe it says. Pronounce your name.
Flatted sky falls. Face. Her slow wave. Don’t die.
No fears. Silence first. Black clouds. His last pain.
_____________________
Mark J. Mitchell
Review by Michael Chin
“Accident” captures the disorientation of an accident scenario in its staccato form, repetition of key words, and the speaker’s ethereal grip on reality. It’s a lovely short poem to efficiently, but elegantly, capture a scene that in a lesser poet’s hands could easily have become melodramatic.