One Second

In the distant past

Ten tidy minutes ago,

Checking their watches

They started the car

Not knowing how

In prehistory

Two sad hours ago,

Had I hugged my nephews

One second longer,

I would have come punctual

To the double collision

Of geological time and now

The road punctuated by significance

The failure to read the stop sign

My mind wrecked and reckless

So when I drove across the path

Of their oncoming car

At the fatal crossroad

We were all one bare second away

From something that had already happened.