Blue Lights In The Rain

He knew that it was her

the moment he saw the blue lights in the distance

instantaneously he saw his entire future

as a half

as less than a half

 

he felt his throat contract in self defence

ahead of jagged closed-door screams

he thought of his daughters

sitting in their classrooms

not four hundred yards from the blue lights

unaware of being halfway orphaned

 

he turned off the windscreen wipers

to blur the outside world

the traffic crawled forward

taking him toward his broken life

 

then, he saw her

and he realised that death is a real thing

he hoped that her new coat did not get too wet in the rain

as he drove on pretending

not to see the twinkling blue

in the rear-view mirror