In this episode we’ll hear Nupur Josi read her heart felt poem titled, The Accident. The poem is also part of the Written Tales Chapbook 2 collection.
I was eight years old in the middle of a beautiful summer night. After a dreary winter, when the whole world was slowly springing back to life, I saw a young man almost die. That night I was out for an ice cream cone, holding my father’s hand skipping excitedly on an uneven tarmac road. My world up until then had only been about cartoons, fairy tales and unicorns. My biggest dilemma that night was having to choose between the many flavors of an ice cream cone. But it all changed the moment I heard the loud crash and that gut wrenching cry, and just like that at the tender age of eight, I learnt about human mortality and the fleeting nature of life… He lay there, in a pool of his own blood, the glass shards from his motorcycle helmet sprinkled all over him like magic fairy dust Against the grim darkness of the night, the little pieces of glass glittered like stars fallen from the sky, making it hard for me to not appreciate the morbid beauty in that tragic site. Soon, an ambulance was called. And as they peeled him off the now crimson road, his body trembled, swinging like a broken pendulum dangerously between death and life. By now my father had pulled me away from the accident site but he didn’t know, with me, something had forever changed inside. I don’t remember which flavor of ice cream we finally got, but I do remember laying in my bed that night picturing the moment right before he crashed and wondering what must have run through his mind. Did the pain numb out all his fears, or was he afraid as life flashed before his eyes? In those quiet moments between the painful gasps for air, did he make peace with the fact that tomorrow he may not be alive… The next morning going to school, I stopped by the accident site. The blood was now gone and the world around had moved on with life. It seemed to me the sun had only risen that morning to swallow up the tragedy of the night, but then a few pieces of glass caught my eye and I wondered again did the man live or did he die… It took me many more summer days and summer nights to stop playing the accident again and again in my mind. Now that I am a grown woman, death doesn’t surprise or scare me anymore, for I see it as a continuation of our lives, but today as I sit here and write, I can’t help but wonder If that young man ever survived that beautiful summer night...
Nupur is a poet, writer and filmmaker living in India. You can listen to more of her on on her youtube channel, Nupur Joshi.
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Ep2. The Accident