(We are) Reduced, Speed Ahead!

Posted by mb apples on July 09, 2006 at 21:43:08:

The window is angled
just enough to blow
my forehead bare, as my
spine cranes over the headrest.

The sweet voice of a suicide
king crackles through broken
speakers, dulling the misery
to a harmless drone.

My mind is clear and breezy
like the clean highway
as we slow for a misplaced
moped who hogs the slow lane.

I stare out the sun roof and
the blue screen is untainted
and ready for simulated creation.

“Oh shit,” is sighed in a panic to
cue my eyes to the road, but
they resist, glued to a clean slate
of unlimited possibilities.

The air bag hits his
face and my window to the
sky goes back in time,
but only for a second.

The back of my head
smashes against the glove
box, still anticipating the
absent air-bag.

A monsoon of jagged shards
rips through my cheeks
like a paper snare drum and
the bridge thunders under the
bumper’s impact.

I’m finally thrown from
my imagination and I catch
a glance at my friendly driver,
his face both blue with
excitement, and green with death.

The scene is inevitable, and
my last wonder dwells on
its tardiness, rather than
praising the power of its redemption.