Respite

She listens to Billy Idol

While driving

And Billy Idol screams in the car

Stories about how speed can fulfill desires.

She doesn’t know a midway.

It’s either that or the silence.

She drives and he screams

She drives and he screams

Until he’d be driving and she’d be screaming.

She forgets about the coffee stain on her jeans

About the wind too sharp

The rain pouring down her open window

About the brown teddy-bear in the car seat behind her

And the infinity of red break lights in front.

She drives

Screaming

Screaming

Screaming

Until it all goes silent.

*This is my very first publication after highschool. This poem has appeared in the Rusty Nail Literary Journal Issue 20, September-October 2014 (I would love to share the link to it, but unfortunately the magazine has since been taken down, so the only way to read the issue is to buy it here), in the Vine Leaves Literary Journal (see the issue here) and (yaaaay!) in the Best of 2015 Anthology (which can only be read if you buy it here).