night driving, ’89
Danielle McMahon
__________
we drive south
in a silver and rust
toyota pick-up
to meet
the blue-brown tide
& fizzling foam
of the atlantic, our
pale yellow headlights
scrape miles
through the summer’s night
the engine drones on
an otherwise empty
highway, through flat-lands
of rows
of dark pine and tobacco
windows down,
stray hairs whip
frantic at my face,
freckled
with tingling stars
a white moon trails us
like a lost balloon
& I am
swimming
in and out of dreams,
breathing in deep like
salted ocean
sighs
the radio plays
A Whiter Shade of Pale
in endless loop
the music swells
golden, haunted
my father’s voice,
warm hushed woodwind,
knows the words
…
silver starlight
pierces through
the bottomless black
sea of sky, casting distant
pine & tobacco fields
in mercury
in memory
sprays of salt-
water & sweet pine
linger
on the cooled August breeze
eyes closed, I breathe
in deep
the music swells
the voice of my father
melts easy in my dreams:
we’re almost there
__________
Danielle McMahon is the author of “Cold rain” in Pittsburgh (Bottlecap Press, 2024), “The Oracle’s Voicemail” (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), “The TV Guide” (Alien Buddha Press, 2024) and a micro-chap titled insecure lovesong (Maverick Duck Press, 2024).
__________

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Posted in Retro Summer and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry