I first imagine driving with you
Then, my hands on the steering wheel
Yours at your lap, restless fingers
Summer’s breath on our necks
We’ll have sex however long it takes to stave off death
I’ll come up with stories while you’re on top of me
and watch the dark spots of your mind I cannot see
She pushes away hands gently from her side as she sleeps
Her lover’s breath within arm’s reach
She’ll roll out of bed and look out the window
peeking her head to the small opening to suck in air
like she’s never gotten any at all
She’ll stand naked there by the window and hear music in her head
What she will do doesn’t concern him
I then imagine the motel where we’ll sleep
restless from the shakes of the car
You think you killed your mother
and we really haven’t even driven that far
I think you have a brain tumor
and then you’ll get a headache
He wakes to the sound of her sleep
She moans and whimpers from her dreams
He’ll slip from the sheets and go to the window
looking out, seeing how far the lights will go into the dark
like he’s never seen light at all
He’ll stand there in his boxers by the window and hum music quietly
What he does doesn’t concern anyone else.
The sun drips in past the motel
The car’s hum in tandem with the wind
Sea spray in the window as I kiss your forehead
It’s your turn to drive
The earth smells alive
She doesn’t come to bed until he’s asleep
His eyes half open as he dreams
She’ll think this is because of her somehow
even though he said he did it on road trips
and she’s never been on a road trip
She’ll watch him for a while as his eyelids flicker
What he dreams about will matter only to him
Later, we find a cliffside
You sit in between my legs smelling
like lilac
Grass dew on your thighs
I lay my hands around your stomach
and pledge to hold you for
a little while
longer
He holds her in a migraine
Her cloudy head warm against his bare chest
He’ll keep his heart rate down because he’s scared
that this might kill her despite logic
and now he must hold her against death
He’ll protect her from nothing for a long time
Someday, that fear will go away
Mist unfolds at the end of the road
and it is us and our car lost in the fog
I feel the wet air in my lungs
God hums low in our ears
Maybe He is near
I hold your hand and we walk
far into the obfuscation
and we hear a train stopping at a station
We follow the horn through the fog
I pull you close by your arm
and kiss your damp forehead intermittently
while we search for light
I look to you
Your eyes are dark
and I want to keep driving with you
They wake together in a moment
they will not remember
in the quick morning of
that next day