Here We Go Again

An Old Record Drives Me to Work
April 1, 2009

It’s been a decade,
maybe more,
since this tombstone shadow
stepped across my path,
but I still know
every lick,
every groove,
every riff and jive
as surely as I know
this long, gray
drive to work.

These pinched blue notes
tickle my fingertips,
itchy against the
steering wheel,
and coil themselves
deep in the bayous
of abandoned synapses –

Suddenly I am sixteen again,
lovesick, forlorn,
and dreaming of
an open road.