and home

this journey just beginning
and 45 minutes left to go
time crystallizes on my windshield,
frozen in droplets across my vision
i’ll wait for them to melt

and 35 minutes left to go
tatu sings sweetly,
solid sugar rock candy to my
exhausted ears
i have heard this cd so many
times now i can sing along,
even though it’s in russian

and 25 minutes left to go
i am rationing the cereal
stacey let me steal before
i left his house
i have to stop stuffing it into
my mouth, or i’ll run out long
before i reach home

and 15 minutes left to go
on the seat next to me,
the painting i care for:
swirls of color that could be a
vortex from an old rainbow brite
movie, or the ripples a feather
would leave in a lake

and 10 minutes left to go
on the seat behind me,
the painting i despise:
a crooked, unsure bottle of
hand lotion and a vastly
uninteresting candle holder,
barely held together by shadow

and 5 minutes left to go
we drove out to greenfield earlier
to look at guitars, sparkling and
pink, with inlaid stars
but etched with spider cracks
the ride, however, was silhouettes of
mountains against a darkening sky,
the mystery of being somewhere
different

and almost home
glide down familiar streets
i only appreciate this town
when i’ve been away from it
too long

and home