It happened fast. Like a long love lost. You can’t track it. You can’t trace it. Nothing ever happened so fast. But you know it happened. Look, the damage has been done. You can see that. You can feel that. You got to deal with that.
20 miles per hour, none more than that. But believe me when I tell you, nothing ever happened so fast. Something fell through my fingers gripped like opportunities often do. A sound like a shot pierced my ear. A jolt pounded. Something died… fast.
Something fell through my fingers gripped and I reached to grab it. Something slipped out of my mind. Turn to the side left and see a mack-truck truckin’. Pull that wheel. Tug it to the right. Hit the curb jumpin’. Hit a fire hydrant crashin’. Nothing ever happened so fast.
That was it. I got out cursin’. I got out cryin’. I got out. I got out… Hey, I got out. Ain’t dead yet. I got out. Hey, I got out. Man, it happened so fast.
Burned and burned again. At 20 miles per hour none faster, nothing ever happened fast as that. I lost my car on the curbside killed. The only accident she’d ever been in. The first accident I ever been in.
Hurtin’, cursin’, “what am I going to do now?” Ain’t got no money. Few commercial talents. Less connections. And a world that’s automating.
Am I John Henry dyin’ by the hammer? Am I trampled under foot? Thoughts cross the mind. Funny thoughts. Strange thoughts. Sad thoughts. Hard thoughts. No thoughts. None that help. I lost my car. A cold hard fact. And with it I’ll lose money. Ain’t got no money. Nothing ever happened so fast.
Car? Totaled. Insurance? I’d be so lucky.
I used to call my car Sheila. It seemed fitting to use an old white woman’s name for an old red car. Backseat memories. Front seat songs. I been around this country multiple times in that car. On high and on the down. She was my first. She was my babe. Sheila and I. For all her problems, I loved that car… Dead. Lost on the curbside killed. At twenty miles an hour…nothing ever happened so fast.
Ramifications… yeah… there’s always those. Consequences… sure, there’ll be some. But I got out… hey I got out. “You’ll save money if you die!” Must be words for the accountant. Not that I got one.
Something slipped through my fingers gripped as things often do. It happened fast. At 20 miles an hour, nothing ever happened so fast. But it happened. I know it did. I look… and the damage has been done. I can see that. I can feel that. I have to deal with that.