Car Wash
Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” played as we drove along
Grady Way to the Brown Bear Car Wash.
My only memory of you & I spending any time alone is in a car,
usually during a manic episode, but let’s forget all that.
I want to remember our last car ride together,
you let me pick a CD from your collection of The Four Seasons,
Favorites From The 50’s & 60’s, Classical Moments, and, somehow,
The Best Of Willie Nelson.
I sat across from you for the first time in one year & four months.
Your room is small, but neat in the place you now live.
The caretakers are kind, even if the meat in the stew is too tough
and you still want to come home.
I’ve been preparing to lose you for years now, but there’s nothing
I can do other than turn up the radio with the windows down
and drive nowhere, crying my eyes out, singing loudly,
moving too fast for anyone to hear me.