The Shapes We Make
The horizon splits the sunrise and our expressions, uncovered, have to remake themselves. He’s driving, I’m staring. Towards the brightening edge of nothing. Above us, a speckling black arrowhead of geese. How do they decide, I wonder, which of them should hold the wounding position, the tip? They soften into a diving dolphin snout; the hierarchy disintegrates. Daylight thrusts a microphone into our faces.
“How goes it, driver?” I say, having exhausted the interior possibilities at journey’s start: the CDs, his comfort, the now empty back seat.
He rubs an eye, his throat twitches. The birds construct a bear’s jaw, yawning around a tiny pink cloud.
“She’ll be fine,” I say, as the cloud is swallowed.
“We should have taken more of her books,” he says.
“Soon,” I say. “Next visit.”