The Car Accident

Along a winding dirt road
on pebbles slick as ice
the tyres describe a skater's arc

blackly.  But it's his scream
from which echoes tumble
like the driving rain

and mountains cover their ears
with the sinking sky -
slinking, hunkering, slumping

against the horizon.
Does the tree shiver
invisible as reason

in the eye of his frustration?
The fender is frowning
against the prevailing shoosh

of crumpled radiator
and raindrops on hot metal
He limps, holding himself up

with his fists, clenching the air
beside his hips,  painfully.
In the car's mouth, the tree waits

for sufferance or salvation
and the man, beside his steaming friend,
seems to do the same.