Some will finish sooner than others
i drove past your
crash site today
saw the wooden cross
in the ground
it brought back memories
of the car accident i had
that i thought i was
going to die in
and i remember being
at the hospital and my
mother telling me the reason
i survived was due to the
fact that god wasn't
done with me yet
which brings me back
to your crash site
i guess god was
done with you
congratulations.
The search continues
i remember this girl in high school
told me that i was smart, had
a good sense of humor, was
decent looking and that all i
needed to do was find a woman
that didn't mind body hair
little did i know that she was
referring to a search that is
much like trying to find
the holy grail
or like searching for a dad
that's fifty grand behind in
child support payments
or better yet
like trying to find
buried treasure without
the help of a fucking map
needless to say
well into my second
decade on this
the search
continues
fast forward to now
it was a little over a decade ago
we were both in our teens
i was driving us back from
a soccer game and just "happened"
to get lost on the way back home
and as we talked and laughed as
i drove those back roads,
"unknowingly" driving in the
opposite direction i should
have been,
i fell in love with you more
with each passing mile
when i finally got you home
and watched you walk in your door
maybe it was how the headlights
brought out your dark, haunting eyes
or perhaps it was the ease in which
your beauty existed, but
i realized i was simply grasping
at air, hoping and dreaming
for something that would
never happen
fast forward to now
you're married and happy
i'm alone and miserable
most days
i knew i should have just
kept fucking driving.
| 
J. J. Campbell
lives, writes and dies a little each day in the state
of Ohio. He's widely published in the small press, most recently in Zygote in
my Coffee, Open Wide Magazine, Antipatico, Underground Voices and Spent Meat.
J.J. also has been included in a number of chapbooks, anthologies and a
spoken word project.