Southbound

“Worlds are altered rather than destroyed.”
-Democritus

Giant tires hissing on asphalt like a snake
winding among wilted leaves of the forest floor,
thousands of rubber tendrils feeling their way
across the scorching blacktop,
almost melting into the tarred sea upon contact with its bubbling surface,
we began our maiden voyage
excited and apprehensive as a fledgling looking outward from the cusp
of his shelter
of spindly twigs and mother’s spit.


Gently probing the fragile edge with a timid talon he gulps
before the sudden slip of surface,
the wind whispering through ruffled feathers
as we whispered to each other in the sticky stillness of summer’s night
while the faded floral wallpaper peeled
from the corners of walls yellowed from lingering cigarette smoke,
our bodies running on cold coffee and adrenaline.