She Remembers How They Fled From The Liquor Store Robbery In New Mexico Poem by Ernest Hilbert

Unleashed, we sped hard through the sunset rush,
To the west, still fierce like stung animals,
Blood honeyed, making for the dusty sun,
Our future seething to a raw gorgeous crush.
Flaming cloud-runs slowly thawed like candles
On the sad, unattainable horizon.
You'd been shot three times, soaked with tar and sweat,
But you gunned the grimy frame toward night,
Lit a smoke and cringed at the oily guts
Leaking from your side. You could never let
Them win. You winced and gripped my small wrist tight,
As we lurched off the road into dirt ruts,
Launched out to tether's end, high from the pain,
The past dragging and chiming like a chain.