Trips

No one cares that she is jaywalking
because there is no car
that wouldn’t stop for her, on any road,
and she knows it like her home town
knows the rain.

She came and went when she decided
it was time to take a different ride
to somewhere new that she had never been,
and it it begins again when her hair stands up
from sleeping in her car.

She conquered every bar in Michigan
by drumming with her nails along
the counter. You could doubt her
if you dared to but all too few ever
called her out and didn’t feel
the buzzards ear their heart.

She does odd jobs on her way
and everyday when it’s her break
she plays guitar alone out back
where all the brown birds pick at
leaking plastic bags.

Only dreaming when she couldn’t stay awake
she always takes what she is after without asking.
Cutting through a patch of trees between
one highway and another she discovers there
a lone wolf looking on, and didn’t walk away
until it was gone.