Wish we were as patient as my car.
To drive four hundred miles not
needing to stop. To go seven hours
over grayscale roads and want
to talk to you still after.
We drove a long way but got
stranded on the side of
a southern highway, scared
from too many October horror films,
from lasting even this long.
(originally published in CircleShow, Summer 2017)
dad rode motorcycles
through west virginia
mountains gathering speed
in the stillness of wheels
yet you are afraid to change
oil or fix your slow traction
of time– anything mechanical
is coiled magic in function.
the broken-down car sputters.
the ghost lays on cardboard
leaking, dripping synthetic
black splotches on concrete–
no knowledge remains.
there is a rattle
in the carburetor
when you drive
(originally published in The Good Men Project, Summer 2017)
We inhaled fog on the Golden Gate
along with traffic exhaust.
Foghorns cried names
we did not recognize.
Car horns, names we gave ourselves.
From this high, you said, there is no good
way to fall. We scrunched our fingers
to encapsulate the small
fragility fog brings– how, in a moment,
everything can change / fog
of ghosts rippling waves from long-
passed boats / fog of sitting in silence,
windows down / fog of steel cable’s
fading red / fog of missing
what we lost while sun cuts a way
(originally published in Eunoia Review, Fall 2016)