Stephen Booth

Annette’s Poem - One, Two, Three

I dedicate this piece of work to my sweetest, darling wife, Annette Booth, and to all other pedestrian victims of road traffic collisions, may they all rest in peace.

One, two, three, that’s all it took.
Pedestrians walking casually,
talking aloud,
laughing,
or standing quiet-like.
Just going about their daily ways,
day after day,
night after night.
From the start of their journeys to the very end;
A to B is our destination,
what and wherever it may be.
Walking along the roadside or sidewalk,
taking buses, cabs and trains.

The roads where traffic is flowing,
light and heavy -
like the blood through our veins.
Vehicles of all shapes and sizes -
two-wheels, four, six and eight, and more,
motoring towards and past us, to reach their journey’s end.
To be walking, standing, waiting, by a roadside - done a thousand times or more.
At a local bus stop with your loved one or partner,
when a car came speeding past us,
the way we had come. 

Down the road, a bang, a crash,
and suddenly the car was coming back,
at speed, but in reverse.

It reached a stop within one, two, three,
blinks of the eye,
that’s all it took.
The gates of hell, opened upon us
and within.
One, two, three, blinks of the eye -
the car was driven away,
leaving carnage and destruction. 

Even those reckless motivations,
So dangerous, careless, recluses - drivers -
you take lives and change lives.
That’s the final destination.

My wife with fatal injuries,
myself in shock and awe.
One, two, three, blinks is all it took,
it’s all it takes.A life taken and many others destroyed.

My wife with fatal injuries,
myself in shock and awe.
One, two, three, blinks is all it took,
it it’s all it takes.
A life taken and many others destroyed.

These are the actions of evil, careless, dangerous, reckless hands,
that take lives, and change lives forever - to their final destination.