one more ride

  

 

one more ride 

 

 

there’s a nice breeze 

blowing in from the ocean. 

it moves up and over 

the Santa Ana Mountains, 

across my back porch. 

it cools the thick wet heat 

of the desert. 

 

there’s a long stretch 

of black asphalt that 

passes near my shelter. 

some nights i walk 

out to the edge of 

that road and set my 

feet atop the line where 

asphalt touches dust. 

 

i imagine breaking 

my father free of his hiding, 

there in Sun City, behind 

the virtual bars of 

convalescence, of hospice. 

 

one last ride down 

a long stretch of black asphalt. 

 

one summer just after receiving 

my license from the California 

Department of Motor Vehicles 

my father and i drove from 

Syracuse, New York to 

Orange, California. 

my sister and mother stayed 

behind and would eventually fly home. 

 

just outside of Springfield, IL 

my father handed me the keys 

to his company car and pointed 

west, said just keep driving 

until you are no longer in the mood. 

 

Springfield to Denver is 910 miles. 

all flat.  all straight highway. 

the old man’s sedan could hit 100mph 

no problem, and the moment he 

fell asleep it did. 

 

every now and then he would blink awake 

and i would ease back some. 

he’d ask, you okay? i’d say, sure. 

he’d drift off and i would hit the pedal. 

 

we ate thick top sirloin steaks at a roadside joint 

somewhere in Kansas, deep in the shadow 

of the Rocky Mountains. 

 

when i touch that highway, the line between 

asphalt and dust, i long for one more run, 

one more ride,  

 

driving with crazy.

 

 

Jack Henry

 

  

Jack Henry is a writer based in the wilds of California and Arizona.  Previous credits have included:  Red Fez, Smoking Typewriter, Piker Press, Razur Cuts, Dissident Voice, Fearless, Raven Cage, Rusty Truck, Ariel Chart, Fleas on the Dog, among others.  In late 2020 his next book, "Driving with Crazy" will be released by Punk Hostage Press. Oh, and he edits/publishes Heroin Love Songs and 1870...jackhenry.wordpress.com