ARRvol34 master reduced - Flipbook - Page 77
Medallion
by
The Chinese symbol for vitality
makes distorted sun spots
on my passenger seat.
The morning sun rays shine through
the wooden pendant’s negative space.
I spend many carbound days
coasting through my own negative space.
I take an emergency break,
get out and sit down even,
in front of the midday speed tables
my car used to catch air from.
The pendant’s smooth, slightly water-warped wood,
like us, is cursed with life.
Perhaps the tree it was cut from
could never truly give it up
and the knife that carved it
had a knowing hand.
It boomerangs back to me in the night,
when sleep dangles over me.
But it no longer sways back and forth
with the turns of the road,
like a hypnotist’s watch
lulling me into the night–
daring me to dream in motion
with closed eyes
and a stray steering wheel.
I lost it that day–
traded its death for mine.
Rearview mirror blown to bits
with the rest of my windshield.
The lack of shattered glass unbuckles me,
but my body still feels the fall,
the lurch forward.
Every night a reminder,
every morning the same road.
And an unthanked protector
returning to the soft earth alone.
69
