Under Invetigation

Someone ran you down
You were riding your bicycle
The paper reported it as “suspicious”
The accident is
Under investigation

Did you see them?
Or did you not know
What hit you?
Flung to the ground like something
Carelessly thrown away

Many called you crazy
Even once I did
But that time we talked by the lake
Our shared struggle under a brilliant sun
As womyn on the fringe

Always after that we’d say hello
Still uneasy
Our eyes searching the other
Maybe for ourselves
Always under investigation

Did you have time to contemplate your life?
Leaving your young daughter behind
Or did your life rush away?
Like a flock of crows
Startled by a loud noise

I imagine you on the pavement
Hands gripping the hardness
Searching perhaps for soft earth
To hold on
Or ease the passing

Did you die alone?
No one to witness
Or did others gather to see your spirit leave?
Their stares boring deep after yours had faded
Keeping you under investigation

I mourn you now
Even though I hardly knew you.
I dreamt I held you, rocked you
As you left this world
Free from other’s stares and judgments

What of your daughter still a child?
She sits at some social worker’s desk
They discuss her future
Tsk-tsking her “unfortunate” life
Now under investigation

On August 14, 2008 Valerie Sanger Was struck by an SUV and killed while bicycling on Route 8 in Cheshire, MA. The accident is still under investigation. She leaves a daughter, who is 12 years old.