before december

Lilies on the dashboard and
buttercups on the windshield
we drive down unknown roads
first-time navigators
listening to songs we don’t know
and singing lyrics we can’t understand
driving with the wrong hand
tuning in to a station which doesn’t exist
doing our part for global warming
(we like it hot anyway)
and pretending it’s ok to wear togs in the rain
which it is, because it’s hot anyway
and we are so hot –
anyway, we can drive any way we like because
all of these roads feed into each other
school road doesn’t even lead to a school but rather
just to an old empty bus stop which is
rusty and
the point is to be spontaneous
so we shouldn’t worry about where we are going
really, do you take a bus to work each day?
I didn’t think so, so we’ll
drive where we like
and it doesn’t even matter if the lilies are dirty
it’s just road dust, right?
the road is getting us to where we want to go so
we shouldn’t look badly on it
after all the road is just doing its job
it’s not the road’s fault that it’s unsealed
how would you like cars running over your back all day?
I can’t imagine you’d be very white either
anyway
the point is
that there are no perfect circles in nature
and no perfect whites which is
fine because I like flaws so long as they’re
not my own
so we stop the car
a little too far down the road and walk
back to the dirt-covered lilies
they end up everywhere
not just on the dashboard but also in the
house and in a
vase and one in
Holly’s hair and several smushed into the
driveway and down the
toilet and between the dog’s
teeth and now all of these places are infected with
dirt. Not just any dirt. Road dirt. Pollution is a
serious issue
so I hope you’ll walk home on Sunday
I’ll drive down with your bags and meet you there
the roads all intersect
sing yourself some lyrics to keep you company
I’ll buy you a wet suit to keep warm
we can employ some road workers when I have a
steady job and they can build us a bus shelter
this is a good plan, I think
I’m done with living on a whim
strategies are what life requires
so before I do anything else
I’m going to buy a road map