Drive Poem by Patrick O'Reilly

Take the wheel!
We could drive til the gas tank is bone dry.

Because I don't want to die in this town,
With its gossipy neighbours
And ghostly whispers
And brown weeds stabbing through the sidewalks,
It's forlorn fences
And false, fearful lovers.

The watertower on the hill
Stands like a grave marker,
A shadowy steel sentinel against the gloomy sky.

Take the wheel!
Drive fast and hard against the night,
Do not go gentle.
Steal away from this slow death, crushing weight.
And if, by chance, we crash and burn
I'll hold your hand and remind you
It's better to burn quickly
Than to ever go quietly.