Escapism

We drift away like wood in water,

floating further and further from

where we learned to lie to the people we love,

and score a victory against our closest friends.

Side by side, hide behind dark tinted windows

going 45 in a 50.

Sun screen noses and naked toes

take a break at a truck stop.

We sip lemonade to soothe our smoke stripped throats

and argue over who will drive next.

Stay long enough to enter the women's door twice.

Fully stocked and ready for a daily party

we'll never be sad if we're always happy

We'll never frown if we're always smiling

we'll never sleep if we're always awake.

Maybe we don't have an exit strategy.

Perhaps we can't recognize north from west

but damn, fumbling, stumbling, scrounging, and bumming,

and riding side by side, I know it's in reach.

We place herbs and pills over food,

See, the seats recline so we don't need a room,

and we can wait an additional day

for shampoo and fresh clothes.

Patience is a virtue,and durability is a skill.

Hand us bread, or maybe we'll take it,

reach out and demand it,

The glow of glamour has left our fingertips charred.

Keep driving, and we'll hit something eventually,

I tell you you again and again,

All the running will be worthwhile

Once we discover our excuse.

The same songs torture a previously pleased ear

repeat, skip, stop, repeat until I hate sound

Silence turns us against the other

Our nerves peeled back, raw, and bleeding

stuck and cornered into honesty.

Pasteurised cheese product,

dry and crumbling gas station biscuits.

Clog our mouth

and add yet another step to to climbing fever.

Even our salvation is drying out.

Somewhere between the starting point and now

we've lost the awareness of pain, discomfort.

Cold, or heat, yelling, tears,

or the brain numbing buzz of static.

Keep on going,

keep on moving,

keep on driving,

side by side,

We're wood in water,

drifting away...

Author's Note

first draft