I was the first on the scene -
and what a scene it was!
Bodies strewn everywhere,
parts hanging from trees,
parts deep in the ravine,
parts being peaked at by birds -
it was almost too much to stomach.
Train was moving at high speed,
filled with those celebrating
something,
perhaps one of the party had shared spirits
with the driver,
hard to say -
but the train had missed its last bend
starting on a bridge
and found itself on its side.
I began to look for anyone I could help
that is what a medic does.
I had seen carnage,
but not like this.
A woman in an evening dress,
perfectly formed -
except the gash from the top of her head to her chest,
beyond any help I could give.
Another who went through a glass window,
her arm hanging by a thread,
“I am fine,”
she says -
“Do you want my number?”
Another groggy from the impact,
saying things only lucent to herself -
“Why didn’t you call me back?”
One whose top was ripped off and -
under other circumstances
I would not have been able to look away,
complaining about the driver,
the food on the train,
her ex.
There were men there too,
but they were all dead,
or pretending to be so.
I walked past another in evening dress
she says to me,
“Mid-life dating is shit!”
How old are you,
I enquire -
47.
This is only mid-life dating if you are going to live to 94.
I thought this would dissuade further conversation,
but she offered me her number.
What a train wreck.
Lee Sturgis