Issue 16
Road
Vernyce Dannells
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Trek
From Ohio to upstate New York
the two rivalrous octogenarians sit in the rear of the car.
One widow twists dry withered hands, chanting
sotto voce, a litany of her son's speed limit violations.
The older, less ably sighted, hopes to reach
her son at a lamely defended arbitrary timetable
(met on the other end by the hope that we'll be
miraculously delayed!).
The son behind the wheel has early acquired the tinnitus
that blesses him
with oblivion to all such transgressions whispered by this
mother
whose children can ordinarily do NO wrong, strong in a near
eugenic
bluster that hers was the better partnership
though her Navy dentist carries scarcely the cachet of her
sister's dashing Air Force fighter pilot
I passively fume and read aloud to guide our mindfulness.
Road weary, we beg rest breaks and food, our eyes
teary with sun,
bursts of tungsten haloed twilight, grisly jolts,
road carcass sightings, the
fracas of horns.
Woefully uneventful, prodded past endurance, I sag into
the jagged miles that tax us to redeposit first the older
then the bolder, to their respective clutches.
Later we know we've done a service
share we'll never overrun pooled
nervousness.
~Vernyce Dannells
Vernyce Dannells is a writer who lives in Honolulu. More about her might be
found using any search engine. Email.
© 2004 by Vernyce Dannells. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2004 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.