“I don’t even know what happened…”

I ask a boy why he is here… 
and that was his reply. 
Tears don’t help him so it’s useless to cry.
Life has just flashed by before his eyes.

Stop your hopelessness and stop your cries!

This boy, so young, should not be here…

“I don’t know, I shouldn't be here – 
I don’t even know what happened…”

That was his reply.



But I know what occurred.
The boy’s past is blurred.
A party is where this boy’s mess all started.
Too bad he is now just a dearly departed.
An out of control party and too much to drink,
It very well distorted his ability to think.
Toxic amounts of alcohol filled his system,
But he still should have used better wisdom.



Why are you here?! 
I yelled, eyes teary.
The air became dreary.

“My head hurts –
I don’t even know what happened…”

That was his reply.



Something is amiss.
And, again, I retell this:
The boy tried to drive, barely seeing –
So drunk he couldn’t even put his car key in.
His eyes darting on and off the wheel,
A couple miles away, collides with tons of steel.
A head on collision and two are dead –
The boy and the driver of the other car. 



What happened?
My voice getting softer.

“I wish I knew –
I don’t even know what happened…”

That was all he had to say.



If only the boy could watch his own funeral,
Let him know all the pain he put others through. 
His classmates bawling,
His mother wailing and calling ,
His aunts getting the details of the crash,
His parents burning his body into ash.

If only this boy could watch the victim’s funeral,
Let him know all the pain he put others through.
The victim of this symbolic crime,
A man, with a young daughter, in his prime,
And the wife rubbing her eyes with a tissue.
Yelling over his grave, “I miss you.”
But she knows she isn’t the judge,
She holds no grudge.
It is still hard for her to find joy,
But every night she prays for the boy.

The boy would realize this is a fate worse than death…

But I can never show him this scene.
The boy will never truly know the damage he caused.

And, still, he tells me he doesn’t know what happened.
It is awful to take another young boy to his fate.

If only he saw me in that can of beer.
If only he saw me in that party invitation.
If only he saw me in that steering wheel.

If only he saw me in that phrase:
“I don’t even know what happened…”

It never ceases to amaze me.

I am Death and I have seen many like him.

Painfully Written by Thorne McFarlane (Fatal Dawn)