A man pulls over on the highway  
to change his tire 
A car speeds past 
too close 
and the sidemirror 
lines up alongside 
the man’s head 
and decapitates him 
 
There is no pleasant way 
to say this 
I picture petals falling 
from a stem 
Leaves shaken  
off a tree’s silver branches 
That cold first wind 
of winter 
 
It is so easy to lose 
everything 
The moon, moth-eaten 
forgetting itself 
piece by piece 
each month 
The clipped light 
of stars  
collapsing in  
on themselves 
The winter 
which eclipses 
all memory 
of warmth 
The earth 
forgotten under 
a veil of rain 
 
I sit in the darkness 
of my car 
backed up behind 
the scene of the accident 
blinking away images 
the mind invents 
of dull eyes moving inside 
a lifeless head, a headless 
body stumbling a few steps 
as though it doesn’t know 
it’s no longer whole 
before collapsing 
arms outstretched 
on the pavement