The Last Exit Sign

The radio crackles
static hisses like a fuse burning.
I switch it off but the noise stays between my teeth.
Clock says three AM. The wipers keep time in slow blinks.

Left the I-95 at exit seventy-two,
where the state line’s a rusted
chain and two cracked teeth.
Trucker told me, ‘Ain’t no cops past Wilton,’
so I took his coffee and kept on driving south.

This car don’t need no papers
this car don’t pay no tax,
this car’s got the radio dead
and the windows rolled back.
I am the last exit sign with
a single working light,
burning just to show you how to leave it all right.

Diner napkins still cling to my dashboard like receipts,
a half-eaten pie and a fork in the cup holder.
Somebody’s glove box key
turned up on the seat,
I’ll throw it out at dawn
if I’m not already gone.

This car don’t need no papers
this car don’t pay no tax,
this car’s got the radio dead
and the windows rolled back.
I am the last exit sign with
a single working light,
burning just to show you how to leave it all right.

The storm hit after Spokane
wind like a busted screen door.
Rain beats the roof in the
rhythm of a metronome set slow.
I count the cracks in the pavement
where the yellow lines fade,
each one’s a year I won’t
be measuring twice.

This car don’t need no papers
this car don’t pay no tax,
this car’s got the radio dead
and the windows rolled back.
I am the last exit sign with
a single working light,
burning just to show you how to leave it all right.

Sun came up wrong
gray sludge on the horizon like bad coffee.
A hitchhiker’s thumb is down but he
won’t ask twice when I don’t look.
His bag has a stitched rip
where some zipper used to be,
I nod and he climbs in without
a word or a thank-you.
At the next exit
he taps my shoulder: ‘You’re bleeding.’
It’s just a paper cut from
tearing up a fast-food map.

This car don’t need no papers
this car don’t pay no tax,
this car’s got the radio dead
and the windows rolled back.
I am the last exit sign with
a single working light,
burning just to show you how to leave it all right.