Mistakes

She takes his hand, his touch is cold,
She breathes in once and tightens her hold.
She glances down at his class ring,
Pondering memories their year should bring.
Graduation, senior prom,
And with those thoughts, she strokes his palm.
An unsettling silence covers the room,
And then her mind begins to zoom.
Back three nights, or was it four?
Maybe even a little more.
No one cares, nobody remembers,
She just recalls it was early November.
It was just a party, it was their weekend off.
A few drinks first, then smoke filled coughs.
She stayed the night, but he drove home,
Grasping tight the wheel of chrome.
The next morning, her cell phone rang,
Loud, obnoxious, hung-over pain.
But she sobered quickly at the news,
Emergency igniting a mental fuse.
A ticking time bomb, she hurried away,
Off to the hospital where her best friend lay.
He’s barely breathing and cold as stone,
A shiver quakes down her back bone.
In under a minute of her arrival,
The monitor goes monotone and doctors rush to his revival.
She’s pulled away, a crying mess,
And finds out later, “We did our best.”
Their best just wasn’t good enough
Because now he’s here, his hand tight in her clutch.
A sob escapes just one more time,
As she turns her back from his casket and begins to cry.
She collects herself with a long, drawn out sigh,
Begging forgiveness for letting him drive.