Brittle Bones (a car idles for eternity)

The heat waves ripple

Windows up

Long, empty interstate

In the drivers seat

The west coast deserts are scruffy

Sage-green brush

Pale ground

Stop for gas

Stereo blaring

The air rasps in my lungs

Watch the numbers tick up

Traveling alone

I hope you’re okay

I only worry myself to sleep sometimes

And times like now I wonder

Should I walk out into the dusty horizon?

Abandon my car keys in the ignition

Music looping

Become yet another lost soul

Where would I be found?

In the shimmers on blazing afternoons on the interstate

A vagabond

A mirage

Among the brittle bones in the shrubbery

Left behind

A car idles for eternity

Frozen in the moment of my leaving