“Merry Christmas,” they said

“we won’t be too long.”

But for longer than she thought, her parents were gone,

Her mother had warned him, not to drink and then drive,

that to get in the car would be like suicide

but after that Christmas Eve party, her parents were lost

her parents had died

and at a horrible cost.

It had been their responsibility

to know which was better,

for themselves and their family

to drive when they’re sober.

To think before acting

would have been the right thing to do,

If they’d shown their respect

for themselves and others too.

They wouldn’t have left her to live all alone.

A daughter whose heart had been chilled to the bone.

She stayed at the hospital, all Christmas night

her face, from fear, had seemed to turn white

but come New Year’s day,

they gave up the fight.

She’d lost both her parents for all of her life

with memories of what happened that Christmas eve night.

If her parents had thought

before they had acted

they wouldn’t have been drunk, and gotten distracted.

Now she spends every Christmas inside a group home

thinking of the family she wished was still known

for the one big mistake, they took a bit too far

they should have thought before getting in the car.