(once again Kit has blessed me by agreeing to join me in a duet. We hope you enjoy....)
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He entered through the back door. It was later than he thought!
Somewhere the time flew by him through the rounds of beer they bought.
No reason to get home from work since she would only be
On that same spot there on the couch, eyes glued to her t.v.

There was a time he couldn't wait to get right home to her.
He still smiled at the memories of how great those times were
But somehow all the passion that had filled those days got lost
And summer's fire had given way to winter's bitter frost.

She heard the back door open, and she quickly wiped her eyes,
She glanced toward the clock (although the time was no surprise);
Another night of emptiness - another night of tears
Had come and gone like all the others, filled with doubt and fears.

It seemed so long ago, that this was where he longed to be,
Yet now the only company she had was her t.v.
She didn't want to fight again - she didn't say a peep,
Just laid back on the couch and closed her eyes as if asleep.

He stood there looking down at her with feelings unexplained.
Although the thrill was fading fast her beauty still remained.
She lay there looking so defenseless, so in need of care,
Great sadness overtook him as he watched her lying there.

How could he tell this gentle woman that whatever force
Had caused him to give her his love had sadly run its course?
How could he tell her that whatever life they shared was through?
He didn't know but it was something that he had to do....

She heard him standing over her and sensed his forceful gaze,
So close they were, yet far away, unlike their younger days;
She longed to hear him whisper, "Darling, come on up to bed."
Just like he used to speak to her when they were newly wed.

By now she would have felt his touch, a kiss upon her cheek,
The warmth of his caress that left her simply feeling weak;
Instead, his silence left her with a loss beyond compare,
As thoughts of leaving him became too much for her to bear.

That night he lay in bed, thought whirling through his tired brain.
These thoughts and torments he was going through had him insane.
Each day he felt more distant, felt the distance slowly grow
Until his wife became a woman that he didn't know.

Tomorrow he would take her somewhere for a little drive
And let her know their marriage just had no way to survive.
He knew that it would be a hard, gut-wrenching thing to do
But, by tomorrow evening she would know that they were through.

She cried herself to sleep that night, alone there in the dark,
The couch a symbol of the fact that they had lost their spark;
She woke a dozen times to hear him snoring from above,
While thoughts and dreams devoured her, of how she'd lost his love.

Tomorrow she would tell him they should go their separate ways,
She practiced how she'd say it all, with tired old clichés;
She rose at dawn, unsure of how or when she'd break the news,
But knew the time had come and she had nothing left to lose.

They drove in silence, his eyes staring at the road ahead
With thoughts of how to break it to her racing through his head.
She hadn't said a word all day, her gaze a vacant stare.
He felt, then, that the time was right to end it all right there.

He turned to face her, trying hard to make the words come out
Then saw the shocked look on her face and heard her frantic shout!
He spun his head around to see the semi straight ahead
And his last thought before the impact was that they were dead.

Her thoughts throughout the day had left her lonely and afraid,
The old clichés she'd practiced seemed too trite to be relayed;
She struggled with her words but knew the time at last had come,
She closed her eyes and took a breath, heart beating like a drum.

She felt his hand reach out to her, and opened up her eyes,
She looked ahead to gather strength to break their wedded ties;
But all at once, she saw the semi baring down ahead,
She screamed as her last thoughts were that both he and she were dead.

He woke after who knows how long of dark, nightmarish dreams
Of screeching tires and breaking glass and horrifying screams.
The walls were white as were the bandages from head to toe..
The I.V. bag dripped liquid in a silent, steady flow.

It all came back to him right then - the truck, the crash, the smell,
The burning rubber, searing heat much worse than any hell.
He thought it was amazing that his body still had life
And then reality came back as he screamed, "Where's my wife?!?!?"

The last thing she remembered was that she would surely die,
Then struggled to bring clarity to where she was and why,
The crash, the flames, the twisted metal - flooded through her mind,
As memories of screams and terror played in slow rewind.

She tried to move, but winced in pain and gave a sudden yelp!
As nurses quickly scrambled to her side to offer help;
She looked at them in panic from her bruised and battered face,
Then cried out, "Where's my husband?! Did they bring him to this
place?!"

He got down slowly from the bed, the IV still attached,
His bandages were turning red from cuts that had been patched.
He made it to the hallway, slippered feet on noiseless floor
And started searching for his wife as he went door to door.

"She has to be here somewhere!", he could hear his own voice say.
"She has to be here! God, please let me know that she's ok..."
He opened one last door and felt such joy he almost cried.
His wife lay there unmoving with a doctor by her side.

"He MUST be here! He HAS to be!" She shouted from her bed,
"Why won't you tell me where he is??? Oh God! He isn't dead???"
She screamed and struggled back and forth, ripped tubes and IV's out .
The nurses tried to calm her but she fought with them throughout.

A doctor rushed to help them - he was ready to sedate .
But spoke to her and eased her to a calmer mental state;
"We'll try to find him." He declared, "Just lay there and be still."
She closed her swollen eyes and said a prayer with all her will.

He cautiously approached her, almost too afraid to speak.
He saw the bruises on her face, the small cuts on her cheek.
His eyes went to the doctor, still unsure of what to say.
The doc looked up and smiled and said, “Don’t worry. She’s ok.”

She heard the words and opened eyes to see her husband there,
The worried look upon his face with deep love in his stare.
She reached and took his hand in hers and gave a gentle squeeze
As both together tried to say, “My love, forgive me….please.”

How close they both had come to losing everything they had.
The thought of what they’d almost done made both feel very sad
But that was over – they would get their future back on track.
The crash that almost took their lives had given their lives back.

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