Night Driving

There was a while when I'd drive an hour and half after work to see a girl even though I knew it wasn't going anywhere. It was always dark when I'd drive home. This is about that.

Night Driving

 

Dead streets, lights as through a spectral

Haze keep watch, or scorn--but they burn;

The mist breaks, or ‘hap I break through

(It’s hard to know which of us turns,

Which of us lives, and is moving).

A rise, and two rivers of black

Will meet; and the sky is black, and

I am.  Once, I chance a look back--

But the rearview blinds me; all these

Eyes of red and yellow, that stare

And wink--do they know what drives me,

Or why I drive?  Against the glare

Of the road signs passing by, I

Lower my eyes--their names, I’ve read:

I am running, now, from No Return;

Obscurity is far ahead.

But the black is endless--this sky,

These concrete rivers, the In Me;

The wheels grind like sand through the

Narrow glass neck of eternity,

And this reminds me that some things

Will never end.  I curse the lure,

And do my best to drown in this

Night driving.  But there is no cure.