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| long-way.jpg by George Hodan |
Drive Out of State
They drove to the country one state after another
crushed under their wheels, rushing to her parents
She held the baby, nearly a toddler now
Sleeping on her lap - they had figured out
just how to facilitate this "disjointed aspect"
of their marriage - figured out just how to sustain
at the very least the friendship once felt
They left their lives in the city, just for a time
plans packed, labeled, left in cardboard boxes
eyes straight ahead visualizing the small house
on flat land, the future they would write
in the simplicity of waving fields of wheat
once again in the soft embrace of unison
Somewhere, maybe in Iowa, they slowed
on a relentlessly straight, low skied road
She lifted a stuck strand of hair from the baby's
flushed, damp, slumbering cheek
He rolled the car onto the soft shoulder
and with as much road behind them as
stretching ahead -
they stared into and
at each other
and with a silent separate sigh
The juggling ended
All of it -
Just like that
and they knew, that it did not matter
which direction they resumed
their destination was the same
