~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Robert S. King

The Silent Wreck

In the storm big wheels spin down

in the whine of last breaths

when the speeder wraps around

a power pole like a question mark,

air bag bubbles popped

as scolds for crossing the line.

We survivors and witnesses

still race about with only dents

and scratches. Our balding tires

still make noise like high winds,

so we go deaf to screeches

of those whose brakes have failed,

go dumb to the cries of twisting metal,

even to silence after the storm.

We hear only our own clocks ticking,

counting on us, perhaps ahead of time,

to meet our deadlines.

Robert S. King lives in Athens, GA. He is a co-founder of FutureCycle Press. Since the 1970s his poems have appeared in hundreds of magazines, including Atlanta Review, California Quarterly, Chariton Review, Hollins Critic, Kenyon Review, Main Street Rag, Midwest Quarterly, Negative Capability, Southern Poetry Review, and Spoon River Poetry Review. He has published nine poetry collections, most recently Developing a Photograph of God (2014), Messages from Multiverses (2020), and Selected Poems (2023). His personal website is www.leftypoet.online