The Road After Work — Villanelle Poem by Martins Akhoeneto

'If I knew, I would not have gone.'
His words came bleeding through the emergency light;
one more road had carried him beyond.

His work was done; the evening had begun.
He left with both feet whole beneath the night;
'If I knew, I would not have gone.'

He was young—tomorrow still shone on,
but metal made a different claim that night;
one more road had carried him beyond.

His tibia and fibula, pillars undone,
lay broken beneath the violence of the night;
'If I knew, I would not have gone.'

A punctured wound kept opening; blood ran on.
We fought to hold the little life in sight;
one more road had carried him beyond.

'Will my leg be fine? Will I walk again? '
I gave him hope where certainty had no light;
'If I knew, I would not have gone'—
one more road had carried him beyond.