He came into my life, so young, energetic, dynamic,
Now I do not understand why it happened, I cannot grasp the reality.
I hear it now, the scream of the banshee as it closes in,
Each second is eternity as the racing monster draws nearer and nearer,
I can feel the fear, taste the death, the cruel destruction of life.
So young, fresh, full of life, unjustly taken.
Eight inches separated life from death, happiness from pain,
Even now I can taste the burning of rubber.
Metal on flesh, metal on flesh, flesh on metal, metal on flesh.
His little body mangled, his face unrecognisable.
The image imprinted forever on my brain –
Why must I forever lose those around me?
Why must it be I who is the one to suffer?
An action like a flicker, a bat of an eyelid, imposes years of pain.
I see the trail of love he left behind, shattered and destroyed,
Why had they not realised what they had done?
The anger swells within me, looking at the consequences, the lack of care,
Metal on flesh, metal on flesh, flesh on metal, metal on flesh.
I gaze into the sky and scream in a torrent of rage,
The innocent punished by the guilty, the pure blemished by the tainted.
If only they had known, would care have been exercised,
Metal on flesh, metal on flesh, flesh on metal, metal on flesh.
***
Jimmy Watkinson
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/metal-on-flesh/
