Poem: on the highway at night

Speeding towards the black nothingness

past tiny towns, tiny lives 

months hurl themselves against the windshield 

splattering into ghostly shadows on the glass

I keep seeing shadowy figures on the side of the road

tiny tricks of the light magnified into ruptures in spacetime

earlier the sun bloomed out over the hills 

cracked like an egg and sobbed over the rolling prairies

I saw it stain ghost towns and gleaming factories

endless rows of RVs and silver towers pulsing with oil

now the infinite night has settled over everything

over the sleepy highways, the back roads, the bright sunflowers 

holding everything in its endless mouth. 

we all speed towards death —

it is an inevitability. everything ends.

the roses, the pain, the seasons, even you and I.

there in the distance I see it

two gleaming eyes — the pinpricks of an approaching car

speeding through the kaleidoscope, rushing by in a burst of wind and heat

how strange to have spotted you here on this highway 

cutting through this solitary landscape, hurtling through the mountains

when I thought I was alone

I suppose you did too

I suppose we all do

even though we never are. 

even though the night is always there

just behind the rushing sound and color of this waking dream

the night that contains all things.