Lonely is a Microwave Apartment, too many spare keys: Lux Aeterna

March 24, 2020 Kate Belew with Lux Aeterna (New York)

Typewriter, photo of my dog, a ticket stub from Nashville, 

and you, fuzzy dice, I've been waiting. 

Heat on the breeze, smell of diesel behind me, and you,

lucky 7s, don't fail us now, this is our time.

I got these cowboy boots at the goodwill years ago

and I like how they kick the empty bottle back 

and forth between our feet, a new game. 

The road is all we have in front of us, our lives

still in front of us, with all these miles on the dash.

I don't mind sweat when it's like this

and I don't miss lonely, it reminds me of my childhood. 

Still alone somehow, now, but lonely is a memory.

Lonely is a microwave apartment, too many spare keys.

And nothing fits, not this one, skeleton, or other 

one, the one with nostalgia's face on it. No, here,

just you and me, the rumble of the engine, 

a laugh that echoes like that noise 

when you only roll one window down,

and the blessing of a dog photo telling me

that freedom can also be that feeling when

you make up your mind that looking back

does no good. Good is for now, only now, this moment

on the long road between old stories and

tomorrow.