as lori-jane slept
we put her on the couch
and filled her full of drugs
then we tried not to talk about it
but we were drawn to it
forced to discuss the turn in the road
and how, exactly, they cut the pole in half
we could not help but wonder
how she had walked to the farmhouse
when she had bled so badly
all of her wounds took both
interior and surface stitches
she told me
that when she first stood up
the blood was coming so fast
she couldn't see
and thought she had lost an eye
tearing off her shirt and wiping at it
until the red/black cleared
what she saw was everyone else unconscious
she dragged one guy out of the car
and in the process he woke up
disoriented by the wheels sticking in the air
they half-carried half-dragged each other
to a stranger's door at dawn
we had so much to talk about, yet nothing
we figured they must have been a ghastly sight
semi-clad, bleeding and babbling
we watched as my drugged sister slept
we sipped beer and watched
and it wasn't enough
all of us sad for her suffering
and the suffering yet to come
the beer helping us a little
but not nearly enough
for the tears we would share when she woke
her love lying dead a hundred miles away
Copyright© michael dennis/Pulp Press Book Publishers 1988