There’s a funeral home just off the highway

Its banner is clear

Burial and crematory – get it all here!

I’m going 55 in the right lane on a Friday

Pick up trucks race

Motorcycles weave

The cars around me leave no space

The weekend’s eve

A guy on his bike needs to get to the base

A woman in the Lexus to the car dealership

A girl in a Chevy Spark applies make up to her face, bright red on those lips

A pick-up truck driver rushes to the construction site

An elderly man in a Camry taps the brakes because of the tailgater behind him, just out of spite

For the elderly man is running late

He needs to get to the dentist

In a group of multi-colored cars, like M&Ms bouncing around

I’m headed to the ocean

We’re still miles apart

The motorcycles around me make a lot of commotion

I hope I can catch the sunset

I heard a loud screech too shrill to forget

The car in front of me swerved

There was a man on the ground

Another person in the road as I looked

Then I heard another sound

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Scrrreeecchhhh

Pusssssshhhh pushhh pusshhh

Cars and trucks backward on the interstate

Crash!

A searing pain in my legs

It was over in a flash

I wanted to respond but it was too late

Fifteen obituaries in the paper that Sunday

The wife of one of the deceased wished she could run away

Her husband owned that funeral home

He jumped from the top of it, broke every bone

The cars below couldn’t swerve in time

The motorists all unknowingly headed to the funeral home in a line

The military man on his bike never made it to work

Nor the girl to her date

Nor the woman to the dealership

Or the man to the construction site

I never saw the sun on the sea

The old man never made it to the dentistry

Lives cut short

The man behind it all – the funeral home owner – had a secret

He had to abort

Before his financial statements leaked it

He spent all the business’ money in gambling

He lost it all – couldn’t give his wife the report

Bankruptcy was on the brink

He saw zero in the account and had to think

He timed it all

He was friends with the tailgater

The elderly man was his father-in-law

His wife the beneficiary of that estate

He knew he could time it just right

He saw that Camry on the interstate

Jumped down to his fate

So much collateral

So many funerals

All at the home he’d owned

His wife became wealthy

She had her father’s estate and her husband’s business

But that interstate system was relentless

She felt so lonely

She closed the obituaries and cried

Had a drink and her medication then went for a ride

She rushed about like everyone else

Soon joined us on the other side