Journeying - Tumblr Posts

On The Bus to Flint, Michigan (And What I Saw There)

If I unfocus my eyes,

the reflection on the Greyhound window

seems as corporeal

as my cramped knees

directly ahead,

casting cars so close

I can clearly see the ghost

of a blood-lost man.

(Honestly, he looks sickly pale:

an Instagram filter

making him appear like spearmint gum,

chewed up with green dotted eyes.)

I watch his inverted image

grip the steering wheel,

knuckles white as the flurried snow

parading us,

suck my lip empathetically,

then mousetrap-snap my teeth down

hard

as the man splits—vanishes!

—into an oil tanker

speeding straight for us.

My yelp catches the attention

of the other passangers,

who then pretend not to notice

out of social politeness

or prude judgement.

The truck fades;

I sigh.

So I think about the remaining six hours

and how the forest we’re passing has bare,

paper-thin trees whose branches look like

veins run dry.