Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Accident!

                                                   Bill Coulter
THREE WORD WEDNESDAY
http://threewordwednesday.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/3ww-clxxxi/
 suggests the words
shard, pulse and weary

I'm afraid it's melodramatic, but the words lent themselves to melodrama! 


ACCIDENT!

It was the night of the storm that it happened.
We were sheltering in the church porch.
There was thunder and lightning and hailstones
And our one source of light was the torch.
Mandy was right by the window
The one with the angelic theme,
When a lightning-bolt flashed and exploded
And Mandy let-out a great scream!
The window had smashed into pieces;
And a great shard had pierced Mandy's chest
She lay on the ground quite unconscious!
What could I do for the best?
I felt for her pulse! She was living.
I let-out a sob of relief.
To think in a second it happened!
It was almost beyond my belief!
I left the shard in position;
The bleeding was not too intense,
But I felt that we needed assistance
Nothing else semed to make sense.
I laid my coat over her body,
And, leaving the porch, I set-out,
There was tragedy back in the church porch
And a violent storm raging without.
Coatless I staggered for miles,
Drenched to the skin and half-dead,
With thunder and lightning around me
And dark purple clouds overhead.
When I reached the small town I was weary,
So weary I fell once or twice,
Exhausted I pressed on a doorbell
With a hand that felt colder than ice.
I collapsed when I'd given my message;
The rest of the night is a blur.
But I know now that Mandy recovered
And I was delighted for her.
So take my advice; when you're hiking
And a storm threatens, go home post haste.
For a lightning-bolt can be a killer
And a life is not something to waste!
*

16 comments:

Gemma Wiseman said...

O help what a hoot! A great tumble through some poetic melodrama!

Thom Gabrukiewicz said...

A good lesson to be learned here.

Andy Sewina said...

Phew, I'm glad she survived, after all that, and the writer must've been freezing too!

Cheryl said...

Gosh, I won't dare leave the house during a storm after reading this!

Julie Jordan Scott said...

Great use of words: my favorite combinations include >> I left the shard in position; The bleeding was not too intense...

and

>>

We were sheltering in the church porch.
There was thunder and lightning and hailstones
And our one source of light was the torch.

>>

Thank you

Lilibeth said...

Melodrama is ok...and so fun to write. I'm glad she recovered in your poem though...and the picture is great foreshadowing.

Angel said...

I really enjoyed this one. The pace and storyline.

anthonynorth said...

Great rhyme and a crackling narrative. Excellent.

Stan Ski said...

Pulsating stuff - a great post.

Amity said...

Very, very nice and it's really frightening i could even feel every word you said...

Thanks for this poem Brenda...

My 3WW is now also up...this is my second week in joining!

Please do visit!

Thanks again!

Thomma Lyn said...

What a riveting poem! Excellently done. And I must confess, as an avid hiker myself, to having been caught up on the mountain during a thunderstorm! :-D

Dorothy said...

I've been in explosive thunder and lightning storms. Your poem brought up memories of such storms. Fortunately, I've so far eluded a lightning strike. I'm glad Mandy survived.

Inay said...

nice a story on a poem...

i like it.....

God bless...

Dee Martin said...

I enjoyed it - melodrama is fun sometimes. Living in tornado alley made it more real!

Jay R. Thurston said...

Excellent poem, quite a story! It built the danger, and had me hoping things would end happily for Mandy and the narrator.

Tumblewords: said...

Storms and shards - what a tale! Great read.