August 20, 2013

in one fluid motion
for Danielle

Consider Pennsylvania
a metaphor. The long drive through the center with your sore neck,
your hunger pangs, your restlessness, your dog breathing heavy in the back seat,
the intermittent need for fuel, and you twisting old gum around your tongue,
fighting impatience and exhaustion, scanning the trees for a shift in topography,
wondering when the highway will spit you home again.

If only you knew
how close it was. How all this time, in one fluid motion, it's been happening,
the road skating underneath, pointing the way, delivering you to the doorstep of your life
again and again.