While driving away from the water that spreads for miles
I realized that life can slip by like the snap of the fingers.
It can slip like the cool breeze
rare in the muggy summer air
slip like the click of the Kodak moment already gone
like the fleeting goosebumps that run along your arms
life can slip by like the rush of adrenaline
like the final climax
the last scream.
All gone in a second, all lost with a blink of the eyes.
I realized that the green signs on route 4 point in a thousand directions
turn right and life will snatch me, shake, hurt, or kill me
turn left and life will wade me through peaceful raindrops
catch me before I break my fall
forward I fly I change I cry
and back is where I'll never return
for route 4 is a one way highway,
because the lane you're on never moves back
I realized that the end is not the result, the end is the flashes
the burns, cuts, and bruises,
the seconds of incredible joy and the days of unbearable sadness
I realized that no matter what they tell you in SAT prep books
the main idea is never the first and last sentence
the main idea is the mush, the blood, the goo,
the long, detailed mess
sometimes the main idea is that there is NO main idea
and we often forget that this is out of our control.

while driving away from the water that spreads for miles
I realized that life can drag you by the throat with no remorse
that life has no conscience
it holds no empathy no sympathy
it holds 3 rules
birth, sex, and death
I realized that life wants you to see black and white
it wants you to feel pain
the real writhing pain that grips at your sense of reality
twists your bones until they crack at every joint
life wants
but life also needs
life needs you to see the gray
life needs you to move past the pain
life needs you to see the light in pure darkness
because life may not be kind
but I realized on the drive back from the water that spreads for miles
that life is lost
and we are in its way
so it pushes and shoves us away in desperation to find its way back
and we become the victims of its pain.