Imagine that you’re driving slowly here,
when someone darts too fast for you to stop.
You can’t avoid collision – though you veer
and brake, a bone is snapped and tendons pop.
You’re traumatized although you’re not to blame,
but sympathy and aid is not for you.
The injured needs attention, and the aim
is succor for the downed. That’s what we do.

So when a friend explodes in mental break,
with snap hostility and slamming door,
for sure we feel your mystified heartache,
but our concern for who flipped out is more.
It’s weird to hear you, sighing, calibrate
our empathy, abetted by your mate.