Train wrecks aren’t so bad.
 
Barely standing and surrounded
by piles of dark debris, you begin to see
the scarred faces of your fellow companions
and realize all at once:

You have been on a long journey
with surprisingly wonderful people
whom you have not been wrong to love
and who have deeply belonged to you.

The sirens’ blare and smells of disaster
rise to challenge the notion that it has
not all been wasted time. Some scream;
others cry. Still, you stand and know:

It’s just that you all got on the wrong train,
one bound for an inevitable, sudden end. And now,
by some miracle, you have survived. So you walk,
arm in arm, some distance away from the track.

And in the soft light of day, you see stark
details, trace crooked lines of sure destruction.
Yet in tired eyes of others, you find
a spark of some tomorrow waiting.

Together, you move on, with prayers
for those clinging to the wreckage,
with determination that will see you
finding faith for the next right step.

In time, courage blossoms. White flower
of healing leads you to follow your dream.
You see beauty where others can not.
You find solace where others are afraid.

They flock to you, the ones who have not
felt the impact of a life derailed. Many would
never guess it, would never believe the tracks
you laid down, the twisted steel of your thoughts.

They come wanting that nameless truth in you,
eager to grab hold of hope that fuels your simple life.
And so, on occasion you take them to the tracks
and tell the story of your beginning,

Tracing the exodus from your former captive life,
Speaking of the mysterious fire that kept you all warm

through cold nights when you wanted to go back, return
to the scene just to pretend you were going somewhere again.

You pause and look them in the eye, risk the result
of too much exposure. You say, “If I hadn’t been here,
I might never have known you, never have found my life.
Train wrecks aren’t so bad.”

In the quiet aftermath, you hear a sweeping wind. It is
the realization within each of them: within their darkest days
and most terrible mistakes they might find the flickering
of human hope alive still, only waiting to be kindled.