I missed it
God damn it, I missed it
I looked out the window as we drove
And I saw it coming so clearly
Train A approaching Train B
At 30 miles an hour
Train B speeding towards Train A
At 44 feet per second
And just as they were about to demonstrate
A textbook 100 kilometer per hour impact
Of screaming metal and screaming men
And the screaming of millions of people
Screaming at their televisions
As the winning goal of the winning game
Is interrupted by screaming newsmen
With breaking news of broken lives
Followed by screaming pundits shrieking about the children
And the failure of government and the failure of man
And the slow death of everything good and decent and American
And screaming politicians beating defenseless podiums
As they scream at each other about money and regulations
And how we must, or if we can, ever manage to stop
Train A from departing at 5:30 PM going one way
And Train B departing at 6:00 PM going the other
Both traveling at an average speed of 26 knots
And colliding in a shattered mass at 6:22 PM
Along what must, by inference, be a 36 mile length of track
All of it finally answering the obvious question, the only question
The one that my eighth grade math book failed to ask
Namely what happens next
When Train A meets Train B in the middle
Because WHERE they meet
And WHEN they meet
And HOW FAST they were going
Were the easy parts
And it seems like it misses the point
So I stared at them silently, eagerly, transfixed
And just as they closed to kiss each other’s face
We passed in front of a building and I missed it
God damn it
That would’ve been so cool