Hey there girl
you know it's been awhile
since we road down back roads
just rackin' up the miles

you are so very beautiful
I love that turquoise blue
black and pink accentuate
your frame in subtle hues

the rubber we were layin'
really brings me there
remembering the miles
wind blowin' through my hair

I really miss the rides
that brought you to the end
if an unrewarding Journey
this wish to you I send

One that we could travel
behind that steering wheel
bringing  lovely thoughts to me
in which you made me feel

that engine why it purred
and sounded badass loud
drivin'  'round with you
it always made us proud

Perhaps one might have guessed
you're really just my truck
I'm sorry that your engine died
For running out of luck

I can still remember
our favorite fishing trips
Way out in the woods
You always kept your grip

down some rugged roads
  kept us safe from harm
I hear you got a new life
You didn't bite the farm!

So keep those people happy
and sing a tune for me
rembering the time
we raised ....
  a family

I'll try not to be sad
and let this be farewell
they say you're just a thing
in this I must not dwell

If energy lives on
those memories  never died
like you're beating engine
on which our lives relied.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

Hair brush in one
hand, the other on
the wheel,
the morning radio
whistles
in my ear,
as I speed,
skipping thoughts
I’m not prepared
to hear.

Sealed inside
this air-conditioned
steel,
I check my
rear-view mirror;
watch the
sun show off rays
that I can’t
feel.

I change lanes
as I make and
cancel plans,
racing with time,
wait a minute….
today is only just
beginning…

Rumble strips and road trips
Drive until I catch the night
Right shoulder tears for all my fears
Thruways admit I lost the fight.

An eye for an eye
Left turn for left turn
GPSs always lie
A truth for a truth
Reroute our directions but we'll
Never regain our wasted youth.

Now again I'm drifting off
The road signs mean I'm never lost
But the rumble strip will always grind
Until I forget what I drove to find.

Highway markers flashing by
In tired hate I wonder why
Until the sun must also rise
This painful day will be reprised.

Hands off the wheel, forget to blink
This desolate night is not what you think
A split second glance in my rearview
Confirms what I already knew
For though my stance to run was wrong
There's no denying you were in the back seat all along.

the turn signal forgets its duty
withdraws the promise of passing
making new rules in an ocean
of pavement and speed limits

where workers claim their land
with reduced lanes and inconvenient hours
their camaraderie drowns out the disappointment
of drivers who left their homes too late
dragging their shadows to
what must be indecent times
in the work space

they slow their speed to a whisper
and attack the horn like a beast
upon its prey
reveling in the language of anger
charged with excessive fury
raising a sermon to command people
who cannot hear the voices
too small to leave the confinement
of their vehicles

Two dead girls go out to play,
They swing on the swings;
Slide down the slide;
Hop on the hopscotch.
Scotch.
Scotch is what killed the two girls;
They weren't drinking - no,
At just six years old?!
They didn't even know what being drunk meant!
It was just the norm for them.
Mum died during child birth;
Never even knew the pair,
Was not even aware that there would be two of them.
Dad lost it.
Driving.
Drunk driving.
Crash.
Death.
Two dead girls go out to play.
Two dead girls.

I would say my bed is the only place
I feel at home anymore but
You are still haunting my dreams
I want to unlace you from my brain,
and rip every stitched piece of you out of
my heart
until red reflects everything,
Like neon street lights,
I want to ask you in the sweetest song
your ears have ever heard
"What does it feel like to be in love"
But my hands shake at the thought
of you not saying
"It's hand crafting every star in the sky to bring out your smile"

I want you to understand
that I turn everything that matters to me
into an item of personification
I want to scream to you that
when I see your hands stretched out of the car window,
I need to capture that exact moment and
turn the contrast bar all the way up
I thank whatever is above us that you can't feel the way my heart beats
and that I can't ever express it correctly
****, I'd love for you to be able to feel things
Just as deeply as me and
the knots in my stomach are a constant reminder
of the *** holes in the road
As if they are screaming at us
as we drive over them
I hear them all night long, however,
I cant seem to focus on anything but the *******
contrast bar

And suddenly
I was captivated by how he held his steering wheel
I was blown away by how the shadows of the passing streets lights
made themselves home on his skin
I wanted to be home on his skin
I wondered what it felt like to be embedded into the cracks in his hands
Actually I wanted to be a small molecule that belonged on his fingertips
Even for just 2 heartbeats
I just wanted to place myself over his chest
And for a few seconds my life would be completely in my hands