Plate of Fries

“Plate of Fries”

Sleep from his eyes
Driving;
The void is only so
Because he fears
The skeleton
Shrinking
The mind
More shallow
Time
Not his own.
The road relents to the past
And unveils a present;
Eyes closed.
Throws his clip-on ties
Onto a wrinkled heap;
Brandishes the bible
And scraps of notes
Of what the pages really mean.
Flickering lights...
Roadside diner;
The way she carried his plate of fries,
He knew she knew
The trouble with the world
And all the lonely people….
She smiled too much
For someone like that;
Someone who ought not to be working
After the hours
Of the futile gifts
Of all the lonely people
To life’s soft parade.
Can’t get it out of his head…
The flashing lights
The driving rain
The song she was singing
Before she spilled coffee
On his shirt and clip-on tie
And book of Revelations.
“She was the devil,”
He’d tell them all,

“The god’s honest truth.”