full tank    decades departed from tonka trucks

sugar ants form prayer lines and swarm the crossroads

tremble like static across a pale yellow moon

this is our defeat

what is being said   please go

I’m trying to save you from my next thought

my next tired image    garden of rose quartz

orb weaver eyelids      a flash     a flash

x-rayed disease    we dispose of the cord

and toss the phone away too     absorb the disconnect

into the bruise of our genes

I say where are you without meaning it

engine cooled as you sink into the passenger seat

pull a quarter from the console   scratch the last

bits of latex off a dirt-caked lottery ticket

one that failed me three years ago