The Plan – A Poem By David Ritter

The Plan

We sat in a bar chugging some beer,
not realizing our date would end in tears.
She was my woman and I her man.
Spending our life together was the plan.

We decided to leave, it was getting late,
a couple in love in a world full of hate.
I started the car, thinking all was fine,
until I drifted over the center line.

The last thing I heard was the sound of a crash,
I awoke in the street, next to my car smashed.
I saw her face as blood ran non-stop,
I tried to go to her when up walked a cop.

“No need to get up, it’s no use now,” he said.
“The girl in the car has been pronounced dead.”
I laid back down and I started to cry,
praying to God and hoping to die.

But my prayer went unanswered, alive I would be,
inside the hospital laying on a gurney.
They treated my wounds and said I could go,
where I was headed, I did not know.

Already this was the worst of all nights,
when up walked the cop to read me my rights.
Then he took me to my own living hell,
alone in a room that they called a cell…

There I laid on a cold slab of tears,
wishing I’d never drunk so many beers.
The next morning inside a full courtroom,
people were crying, I shared in their gloom.

I looked at her mom teary-eyed and sad,
and I turned in shame when I saw her dad.
It mattered little now how sorry I was,
when I chose to drive while I was buzzed.

Now days are filled where I constantly pace,
nights are haunted, all I see is her face.
This jail is one consequence that I must pay,
as is my memory of her that won’t go away.

She was my woman and I her man.
Spending this life together wasn’t the plan.

— David Ritter