'Road trip' by Miranda Lello
The world is breaking
driving through the falling dark somewhere bombs are falling
and I want to show you where I came from
point to the purple hills and the darkening trees
the night condensing on the fields
But you are sleeping, or pretending to
The world is breaking
I would like to say that once this
ringed in valley was all the world and cupped me in its hand as
I conversed with blades of grass or
crawled through the blackberries chasing fairies
But you are sleeping, or pretending to
Somewhere a city is burning and we could
at least talk about how easily edifices crumble
how delicate is our human skin
tiny hairs everywhere but the palms of our hands
soles of our feet how easy to dissolve
But you are sleeping, or pretending to
I am driving with all the windows down hearing
yesterday happening on the other side of the world
I hear crying and want to ask if you remember
the time we went naked swimming in the surf at night
how did the hollow booming of the grey waves sound to you
as we stood wet and bare on the sand?
Wake and I will show you where I came from
tell you how the waves sounded like the echo
of all the eons of the earth the beat of my brief heart
tell you if we drive west we can keep
a step ahead of yesterday where I don’t want to alarm you
the world seems to be ending
But you are sleeping, or pretending to
Miranda Lello
Leave a comment
If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.
If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.
Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.