April 24, 2021Hitch-Hiking
for my sister
I let you do the talking,
knew it was your
blonde hair blanched white with saltwater
They pulled to
the crab-grassed shoulders of Corn Neck Road
for.
You did the talking,
invented places
for them to take us. I saw my face
In the rearview mirrors
a hanging crystal hurt
my eyes. A station wagon
Its mats caked
with horseshit, warm cans of beer
for us to hold between our knees
The matches
that wouldn’t light in the wind
of a backseat. The minivan doors
Slid open babies opened
their eyes fell back to sleep
in the air-conditioned sunlight.
Surfboards knocked me
in the temples
bandanas tied around the boys’ necks.
I don’t remember any music
Just your
Who sings this? your calm elbow
Out the window
and pickup trucks with
full cans of gas to sit on. The doors opened
And there were dreadlocks
dripping held together
with a rubber band and Who sings this? and
An old woman
with buckets of seaweed
crawling with baby crabs or
The voice of a teenage boy
too thin
I live in an abandoned barn
Or a gutted van
white plastic kitchen chairs for
us to sit on and doors dented by deer.
Your calm elbow.
A hatchback in the parking lot of Mosquito Beach
slap of water
Against the hulls
an old sunset your tan shoulders
lift from the driver’s window turn
Give me the okay
to get in
and what could you sound like?
There was a fever of car doors
opening and slamming all over
the island that summer, everything
Out the window blowing by in
the white light
of our going. Who sings this?
from #28 - Winter 2007