Dear Road

I'm riding you towards my destination
been aching to leave this place behind
this city that's always under a black pall
of trapped hopelessness

now I ride your smooth gray ribbon
hurtling towards hell or happiness
the livid orange sky bisected
with gray clouds of promise
I can feel the shackles loosening
from my wrists and ankles

where I'll go doesn't seem to matter
the silky purr of the motor
is music to sustain me
I'm just ensorcelled by the fact
you never seem to stop winding

it is like staring into a mirror
seeing endless portraits of oneself
being haunted by those dizzying echoes
of invincibility
and possibility

I ride you all the way
you are an empty slate
etched in dots that lead
towards beautiful unknowns

you teach a class
in choice and freedom

and suddenly everything
that came before
just doesn't exist anymore
as my son laughs wide
in the rear-view mirror
with one bruised eye

and I laugh with him
ignoring the pain
of my purple smarting cheek
because thankfully
I've finally come to my senses
and left the man forever