Road Kill

I never thought I’d be roadkill.

Skull punched into pavement on the side of the highway

Everyone looks away,

Gags, gasps, grimaces at the rotting

Rodents, vermin viscera, recoils

At this pedestrian pain. My body,

Flattened and flatlining over

Several lanes. Blood, staining

Sidewalks, spilling into the sewer

Drain. My sweat, dripping,

Tracing a chalk outline. My spine,

Arched like a gravestone,

Begging to be noticed, begging

To be remembered. A stranger

Steps over the mess,

Careful not to sully their shoes. 

In the quiet of the evening sky,

I was stopped dead

In my tracks by his blazing

Headlights. And spread

Thin across concrete. I choked

On my own words. He said,

I’d never hurt you, Dear. 

I stared into his doe eyes

And believed him. 

In the morning, the Sun

Beats down on me and I die

Again. Can I call it

A hit and run if we both

Just lie there?

I trace over the skid marks

Where his hands ran over me.

He picks my hair

Out of his grille. And starts the day

Anew. By now,

The neighbourhood knows to cross

The street when they come

My way. Steer clear the rank,

The jumble of bones,

Vertebrae reaching

For the sky,

Guilt that hovers like flies

Over bodies left at the roadside

They just drive away,

Waiting for someone to come rake up

What remains. They just drive

Away and imagine they never

Saw me. Make believe

Manslaughter. As if they don’t 

All know what’s happened. 

Keep their heads down

And pretend they don’t all know

Who’s done it. I look up

At the sky and inhale

One last breath,

Last specks of my blood

Boiling on the highway tarmac

As I die in the shadow of your Sun. 

–Fabienne de Cartier