Cool autumn days
driving around the notch and
to the untrained eyes I’m watching
the magnificent foliage.

To the eyes that know me well,
it’s a getaway paradise:
driving around with music blasting
without a care in the world
where I end up.

My peacefulness is disrupted
by a true traveler
who was fixated on the beautiful mountainside
a moment too long
catapulting themselves over the bluff,
I dial 9-1-1, but there is no way
for me to make it down to help.
They let me know
she died instantly on impact.

I head back south
with the incident I witnessed
hovering over my head like a rain cloud,
more and more I start
realizing that I experienced something terrible,
with the noise that was once music
in the background of my thoughts.
my emotions spiral
into a depressed state for
the family who just lost their mother
and the father who just lost his wife.