Just Around the Bend

This poem is my personal explanation of the "why and how" of Willie Loman's death that is referenced to but never portrayed in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Wheels spinning faster,
screaming around the corner,
as if to send a warning to the man.

But the man behind the wheel smiles, ignoring the warning.
Knowing for once his life has purpose, that his goal is close;
The pedal is pushed, the engine roars

A second bend looms ahead,
His goal is seen,
Lit up by his headlights

He thinks of his family,
His motivation to finish this task
And for them he pours on the power

Transmission slipping, the car slows
But then it finds the next gear,
rocketing the car into the turn

A single tear escapes
But he swipes it away, revealing his eyes,
Which are filled with hunger and desire

Time slows as metal embraces the pole;
The headlights smash,
The windshield explodes.

His head is kissed with the sharp sting of glass,
His body soaring forward for a moment,
before he crumples against the pole.

His body lays there;
His body battered,
his face torn

he dies the death of a salesman
a long and painful decay of a family
but giving them in death what he never could have in life