Burro #2: What’s up with this guy?
Burro #3: Dunno.
Burro #2: Why is he stopping?
Burro #3: Dunno.
Burro #2: Wait. What!? Again?
Burro #3: Yep. Again.
Burro #1: Smile for the camera, ladies.
Burro #2: Bloody tourists!
Burro #3: At least the backlight is nice.
Burro #1: 🙂
Burro #2: 
Burro #3: 🙂
An oppressive weight
Waiting to fall
My mood becomes dark as the sky
Until I realize the low grey cover
Provides an atmospheric parasol
A gift to soften harsh desert sun
Diminish the heat of afternoon
An invitation to step out of the car
I breathe deeply in sage-scented air
While my mood becomes effervescent
As sage drifting in the desert breeze
I have to admit
To some minor or major
Moments of fascination
Or delight
Or longing
Emotion moving my core
With some rekindled
Long-forgotten moment
Or chapter
In a life becoming much too long
To hold all the memories
Within my mind alone
A birthday card
A letter written but never sent
Elementary report cards
And aptitude test results
A story I’d written
With misshapen letters
And a child’s innocence
A Dragnet drama
Starring a detective snake
Age eight
The road was freshly paved
Though heavily pebbled
So the car hummed
As it shimmied in the heavy winds
Here was I
A projectile crossing open country
Which to my being is as good
As being wrapped in a blanket
By a fire on a snowy winter’s eve
Road trips are comfort food for my soul
Don’t let the bastards get you down
She whispered
Drew another breath
Don’t let the bastards get you down
She said
Drew another breath
Don’t let this bastard get you down
She growled
Then held what remained of her breath
Until she could hold it no longer
Then simply let the breath go
And with it went all the bastards
Even the one who stood before her
Who knew her well enough
That there was no coming back
Once the door closed behind him
She listened for the squeaky hinge
The groaning spring
As the door slammed shut
With satisfying finality
Boots clattered across the porch
Down the steps
Scattering gravel in the drive
A creaky metal door opened
Then screeched shut
Two roars of an engine
The second sprayed gravel
Onto the porch
While the roar drew away
Into the insurmountable distance
Just as he had over the last month
Soon enough the birdsong dispelled her reverie
And when she opened her eyes
The world already seemed brighter
With nary a bastard in sight
It was impossible to know
If her composure reflected disoriented shock
Or disdain for the physical danger
She had not yet entirely escaped
Until she let the hem fall down her thigh
Turned her attention toward her destination
Determined steps splashed a path
In a straight line through flotillas of shattered debris
Which seemed to have drifted in a pattern
Intended to allow her unobstructed exit
Books, papers, and various other shards of detritus
Drifted in the eddies of unsettled water
Which she cleaved like a great ship through choppy seas
In countenance and action
She exhibited a formidable and resolute presence
Like the war film fantasy of the battalion commander
Who leads his troops through a barrage
Of bullets and shrapnel
Upright, undeterred, intent not on the enemy
But the objective beyond their defensive lines
Kyle heads out
To recheck the lashings
I like that about him
He never leaves anything to chance
Always stupid checks his own work
That, and he always buys the first round
As the momentary daylight faded
The mist which was once my Toyota
Settled into the crater
That had been a parking lot
I hoped the owner
Of that formidable weapon
Hadn’t acquired my new position
The concrete barrier I’d sheltered behind
Suddenly seemed feeble protection
Night returned and I got the fuck outta there
The wave peters out
Just before it reaches me
Its last energy spent
As bubbling foam dissipates
My muscles relax
Tension leaves my body
While the ocean recedes
Back down the beach
I turn over the paper again
Check the wording again
The test was negative
The test was negative
I’m going to live
Another wave comes
Stronger than the last
Soaking just one shoe
Which makes a delightful squish
As I stride back up to the house
Good tidings in hand
The monumental lines of architecture
Seemed to flex
As a bow drawn by its string
Then paused there
Taught, straining
As if for a steadying breath
The release
Was even more startling
And he felt the shock wave
When the discharged tension
Shook the earth
As the mammoth thing
Quite simply
Leapt from the ground
Untethered as it was
From gravity
It swam lazily
Through the thin atmosphere
Toward a horizon
It would soon enough
Disappear beyond
Pix to Words 