Leave

In Brighton, a suburb of Denver,

at  6:03 pm on a Tuesday, a woman

in dark shades is seen careening through

a yellow traffic light turning red,

grinning straight into the windshield

days rerunning behind her:

41 Christmases, 3 mortgages, 4 cars, 5 dogs

7 expired drivers licenses

2 slippers under the bed

Days fill

Nights fill

Glasses fill

Calendars fill

Beds fill

She never fills

But what life did she expect?

An ant is crawling across the

knuckles of her driving hand

He knows the answer but

he's not telling her

Radio rising, orange tip of a

cigarette sparks the dark

out the window

a light beer in the cupholder

she eases down on the pedal

humming rubber on white concrete

going somewhere:

factories without smoke drowse soundless

ships sail from distant harbors

cars run silently at highway rests

numbered seats fly across time zones

the world continues to

be the same

without her.

          Night Scream

This night has nothing to be ashamed of,
and just staggered in this place at last call -
drunken and unshaven, a kind of fuckless orgasm
with no one to tuck it in bed.

This night has roamed across concrete,
faced neon beer signs in liquored mirrors
with hollowed eyes seeking reprieve in
thirsts and pleasures sought.
This night is curious.
This night is weak.

This night is drenched in vodka, diazepam -
forty miles from nowhere, wild and bewildered
in a ceaseless thrust.
This night aches.
But then we see this:

Two bodies galloping against each other under cool sheets,
a shudder, then a glow of silver on her thigh, drying.

A bond, however fragile. Until morning when it takes flight and then it's gone?

Oh, who the hell knows, but I do know this night will stay in bed.

Tony Walton is a Caribbean writer living in the Cayman Islands. His works have appeared in Storyteller Magazine, Moonkind Press, Whisperings Magazine, Mountain Tales Press, Out of Our Magazine, Poetry Bay Magazine, Burningword Magazine, Wilde Magazine, Nite Writers Literary International Literary Journal, Avalon Literary Review, Iceland Daily, East Lit Literary Magazine, Boston Poetry Magazine, Eunoia Magazine, Olentangy Review, Carnival Literary Magazine and Verity LA.

Article originally appeared on phantom kangaroo (http://phantomkangaroo.com/).

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