Off-roading
Michal ‘MJ’ Jones
We gather in the desert
my head spins its way past stars
Cozy, I could watch this same twilight
clustered sunset for a millennium
But you aren’t so current as much
as river rushing –
you’ve got gumption to pack
as many supernovas into this thin life
& so I have my becoming unpackaged
tossed & crumbled behind some reddish country road
I barrel down
a path until there is none
for each tiptoe on the petal
a bloom & sputter in my heart
as the Jeep jostles / throttles &
bangs up a cloud staircase into soft ether
Offroads erode my stepping stones, my kite rings –
we’re just wild saguaro & ocotillo overgrowth
I drive along our living laughter
ready to upchuck my gravitas
your palm on my neck, your love
a root that settles my stomach
At the end of this desert road – or maybe
in the expanse of its middle
I will stand, shoulders sure & tucked
with outstretched hands
Walk to me & pull us
into that blue abandon sweeping the sky.
Michal ‘MJ’ Jones is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet & parent in Oakland, CA. Their poems have appeared in Anomaly, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, & TriQuarterly Review. Their debut poetry collection HOOD VACATIONS is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in 2023. Twitter: @JustSayMJ


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