The next installment!

I'm posting my Sunday poem a little early this week. It's the next part of a sequence I'm working on with rbannal at permanentstrangerladyhand.

Just in case you missed something...

part 1: "Love Song for the End of Summer" (rbannal)

part 2: "Morning in Late September" (fragondruit)

part 3: "A New Sunset" (rbannal)

This week I was to "steal" two of his lines from part 3 and use them in order, but with the freedom to play with the line breaks. As always, I italicized rbannal's lines. Watch his poetry blog for part 5-- he'll have to siphon two lines from my poem and weave it into his own response.

Here's part 4:

Crash on M-131

The engine hisses as rain hits the hot steel.

I walk along the side of the road until my limbs go numb;

until the trees and farmhouses on the horizon blur and

the moon fades to gray. Until once-closed eyes again

acknowledge the perfection of the spiraling colors.

I keep walking because it is too late to go back.

I leave my vocal chords along the

side of the road. I am naked.

The wind must have ripped the clothes

from my body. How is it, I wonder, that

I did not notice when this happened?

I must be breathing.

I pass a hulk of charred metal and plastic.

With each step the circle tightens.

I’ve been here before.

A familiar smell mingles with that of

smoldering leather and upholstery.

Smoke doesn’t just rise, it spreads.

For a moment, I can almost

hear myself whisper, but it’s too quiet.

Why do I know that awful smell?

Then I remember.

The engine hisses as rain hits the hot steel.