I waited until the gage was under
a quarter tank before I stopped to fill up –
dust partially covering the “E” – and
I watched the numbers rise until full.
Stale coffee and past- sale date cookies
are my companions on these back roads
With the windows down; cloudy gravel
in my rear-view. Nick Cave tells me
people just ain’t no good and I have to agree
I wonder where your car is and if you’re in it
as a passenger or driver; I’d prefer you under it –
For that’s what happens to your worldview
when your world gets cut to pieces and left
to rot in late summer sun as you drive these
back roads hoping for a head on collision
Now, that might not be politically correct,
but there is nothing political or correct about
this poem, or about a life that has ended
another life with a few choice words
And now those words compete with all
the other words people say at a time
like this; I throw them all out the window,
along with the cookies and coffee, left to rot
roadside in the hot summer sun
Cathy Porter’s poetry has appeared in Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Homestead Review, Abbey, and other journals. She has two chapbooks available from Finishing Line Press: A Life In The Day, and Dust And Angels. She lives in Omaha, NE and can be reached at clcon@q.com