I Owe My Life To That Pile

As a Peace Corps Volunteer
Down in the South of Thailand
A number of years ago,
I rode a motorcycle
To get back and forth from town
And away to distant sites.

I loved to ride
Rain or shine
Throughout the South
Traveling the jungle trails,
Cruising the roads
And going town to town.

When the monsoon season came,
Torrential rains would fall
Making it hard enough
To see in the day,
And almost impossible at night,
Making accidents common.

One such night
In a driving rain
As I passed the police station,
Who but the Chief of Police
Should come zooming out,
Only to get broadsided!

Then there was the time,
Again late at night,
While riding through a downpour,
That I managed to swerve
In the nick of time
To avoid a pile in the road.

And just as I swerved
I looked up to see
The biggest blackest
Elephant I had ever seen,
Who could have been neutered
Right then and there.

They serve as tow trucks
In that part of the world
And tail lights are not
A part of their anatomy
And strange as it may seem
I owe my life to that pile!