A Thousand Miles is a Long Way

Dirty wind picked up and he placed one hand on his head to keep his hat from blowing off. On the hood of his truck he sat as cold as the moon rising over the Bitterroots on the horizon, just like the way he felt three weeks before after he saw the look in her face when she said she didn't love him anymore. Said life's too short. Said she loved him once but nowhere did it say she had to keep on.

Pulled in for gas a few miles back just past the only town he'd seen all day and the attendant said his card was no good. Declined twice, she said. Mind runnin' it again, he said. Sure, sure, sure, she said, but I seen this before. Come down this road likely you got a card that's no good, she said. And you ain't gonna make it wherever you're goin' by sundown.

Don't need the sun anymore, he thought.

Wind getting in between his teeth now and when he closed his eyes to keep the silt out it seemed brighter than the brightless night.

(published in 2010 Penumbra; Cal-State Stanislaus press)