Bloody Stream

I gazed down at a river (or was it a stream?)
I found myself beside myself -
or was it someone else impersonating me?

Whoever it was dived into the river
(or perhaps just a stream)
But then, it turned into an ocean
or so I did believe.

Suddenly, dark waves of despair
washed over me.

Terms of wrong and right
I could not find;
Whirlwinds of macabre imagery
enthralled my mind.

Death and failure were swimming by my side,
although, so close
they just would not collide.

I now found myself
under a bridge,
in the swallow water below;
I was looking up
and dying really slow.

My skull had been shattered
by the jagged rock edge.

As I sighed my final breath,
I thought:
"In fact
it was only a stream!"

Suddenly, a warm summer breeze came and lifted me
and I was looking
down again
upon a strange, haunting scene.

In the stream,
lay only the battered remains of the stranger,
I'd met in a bar the night before.

I was parked on a bridge
with the coming of a glorious,
new dawn.

So I climbed into my car
and thought:
"What a beautiful start
to a lovely new day!"