The Highway

The open road—is anything better?

I’ve never been afraid

to ditch the interstate,

find some gravelly ribbon

wrapped around these forests, fields, and farms,

a gift of landscape, a gentle unfolding.

I surrender to my desire

to get out of traffic, abandon the

straightaway, leave that night belt

of LED lights so self-congratulatory

they dare compete with the stars.

I’d rather slip down through a two-lane blacktop unfettered by billboards.

Feel the moon’s silver gaze silken my frazzled nerves,

open up the part of me that rejects

the linear obsession.

Follow these roads opening themselves to you as far as they’ll take you—

they’ll lead you to new rivers and always back to me.