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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