My mother drove barefoot
Setting the needle at 80
Eating up the road
Like ashes of a lover.
I sat in the back
Eyes pressed together
Praying to a god
I no longer believed in.
It annoyed her
That I was afraid
Throwing her into
Overdrive.
'You want scared? ' she'd say
Turning around to face me,
Swerving from one side
To the other
Laughing when we hit
The warning strips,
Watching me jump
Bump bump bump.
I was never prepared
Feeling naked and blind
The way she went
Between poles.
She’d go into stores shoeless, too
Padding down linoleum aisles,
Her heels coming down hard
While I trailed behind,
An afterthought,
Gathering stares from
Suburban housewives
Sniffing for gossip.
I used to wish
The warnings were in life,
Indicating when she
Went over the lines, and
I should brace for impact.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
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Tragic and deep and everything a poem should be. Terrific work Dairedee.10+