Suddenly Poem by Achim Wollscheid

What a way to die
Only eighteen, just beginning life
On a road you were driving
I don’t really know the speed
Because I looked past all the details
I just grasped that now you’re gone
I heard that your car flipped over
On the way back to your college dorm
It must have caused you pain
To think for something like a second
You’d never see your family again
Someone told me that your seat belt wasn’t fastened
And I had to take a breath
It must have caused you sadness
To know for something like a second
Your life could have been saved
And I always took life for granted
Which I’m sure you did as well
Until I saw how death takes its toll
In such an unpredictable way
So I think of my health
And of my being here today
I think of your accident
And how it could have turned out some other way
Had you known beforehand
What was going to happen
Now you are gone, and it’s too late to say goodbye
I think of your family that you left behind
And almost want to cry
I remember seeing you a couple of days ago
I would never figure that you’d be the one to die
…What a way to die

-To David, R.I.P.