Driving

Driving

I'm a safe driver
ask my friends
but not my parents
I always use my blinker...

My little red Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
takes me wherever I need to be going
and sometimes I pretend my car
is a racing raft or red rocket-
depending on the weather.

I love to drive with my windows down
as I pass by the sprinklers, and laugh
as water droplets fall on my skin and seats
because it makes me remember rain and
a moment in time when I was happy...

Sometimes I write while I drive, like now
Just to show that steering wheels and flashing lights
are overrated and can't stop the impulses of a poet.

And I'm always singing in the car,
and usually thinking about Love,
and don't care if the people in lanes next to me
see me talking to myself like a crazy person
Because, I am one.

Sometimes I drive with my parrot on my shoulder
and my dog in my lap, because they are both needy.
But they make an awful racket when the radio screams...

I love to hear the roar of my engine!
switching from gear to gear in a spunky rhythm
And I'll admit, I often forget my headlights...
And sometimes I drive 70 on 35mph streets...
I'm not reckless, I'm just...reckless.

And I push the pedals to the beat of the music
and blast the techno on the freeway at 2:00am
my horsepower on overload, speeding to Santa Monica,
maybe to escape from the galloping, gaping loneliness or
because I still can't go fast enough to reach the moon yet.

But sometimes, the leather seats
are the only place I can cry,
because I know the moment I pull the handle
The air and grief and stress and life
will all come rushing back to challenge me;
But in the car, I am invincible.
And, I can only say that because I have never gotten a ticket:)