Country nighttime turned off the world
Absolute window blacking 
Any other life void-invisible 
Universe shrunk snack-size 
Existence is only *this* cab, 
*these* tiny lights,
*this* fuzzing radio
One direction
Only ahead 
Only *these* tracks 

A change in rhythm signals new territory 
Lower infrastructure spend 
Budget acknowledged by 
transitioning drum track 
More toms 
Double kick 
More bass, but 
no less hypnotising, no less soporific, no less slowing, no less…

Snap.
Driver vigilance alarm earns its keep 
Pierced by safety sound needles 
Bleary eyes split open 
Only closed for seconds 
Enough to dry 3am eyelash glue 
Intermittent, intensifying battle 
Open versus closed
Here versus where 
Wake versus yawning, rocking, mesmerising, irresistible…

Snap. 
Assistance required 
Scan for options 
Snoozing thermos drools its last drips onto the floor mat 
Moment of silence for coffee, our absent friend 
What else? 
Lunch box offers carrot sticks 
Sharp, crisp, smug 
No help. What else? Cake. 
A silent bargain 
*– okay calories, we’ve had our differences, but we need to pull together*
Health is tomorrow, safety is now 

Sleepiness shrinks and stretches place and time 
There is only here
Only now 
Battle and bargains 
Winning and losing 
Until the sun comes up

jill_1

Night train to cake

Jun 5, 2026

June 2026

2026

Anger & Conflict - June 2026

Beauty & Aesthetics - June 2026

Dark & Scary - June 2026

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Family & Relationships - June 2026

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Historical & Ancient - June 2026

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World & Travel - June 2026

Nick-Moore

Stupendous &#10084;&#65039;&#8205;&#128293;

removed.-gz41

Wonderful wording, my friend. Wow.&#128156;&#128522;

DanielTucker

I agree with Neville. Another incredible write, Jill. 

You can make the most beautiful work of art out of a mundane cab ride to work with a thermos of coffee and a lunch box offering two choices... and you decide the carrot sticks must eat cake. ha! 
 I certainly enjoyed the cab ride on this boring, late night in Canada. Thank you, Jill!!!

removed.-m4gp

You are such a beautiful writer. I purchased 10 suns and knew the last one had to be for a special poet and this poem just blew me away. I hope when passing, your legacy will remain as some of our poets wish so much.

NevilleZ

this is really nothing short of incredible

Ben-Noah-Suri

Loved this. Loved, "okay calories, we&#8217;ve had our differences, but we need to pull together". btw, my calories and I never pull together... Lol

removed.u685248

Jill, this isn't about your poem, and I hope that's okay, but I was so excited tonight, that I didn't blurt out, I SCREAMED out, "The Jills are here, I finally found the missing Jills!!!", and Mariya laughed so hard she had to lie down on the floor because her stomach hurt so much!! 

At precisely 4:32 PM, Mari said, "You need to get out, let's go for a car ride", and I suddenly felt like a sick dog that was maybe getting tricked into going to the vet's for that final shot into the great wide open, and I was sorta kinda close I guess!

She tempted me with promises of Rocky Road and Black Cherry double-scoops at the Snow Hut (est. 1972, I JUST remember the day it opened in fact), and also, to sweeten the deal, 1/2 litre of Black Cherry to take home, and her filthy little words, not mine, lol, "I don't mind if I get maybe UTI, you can use me like own personal sundae dish", lolol, that girl, what ya gonna do?? Haha.

And we did (and we did), but first she sped to Ottawa Real Estate & Insurance Corporation (est. 1923), and there's only ONE reason to go there, so I knew the trap laid by my Polish Overlord had sprung, and there was tomfoolery and such, but we got a marriage license. I did get married once after 18 days of dating someone, so our 27 days feels like a LIFETIME in comparison, and I told her that the license is only good for 90 days, "Oh, Sunshine, we getting married before the dawn rise tomorrow morning or else I turn a turnip, it a witch's curse on me, oh, please save me handsome prince!!", and I couldn't argue with that logic. I'm sure you're finding this all very fascinating, but it does get the Jill part, soon, I'll close the circle here soon!!

So, yes, we got our ice cream cones, had them while taking a stroll in Crescent Park. It's noted as one of the most beautiful urban parks in Western Canada, BUT it was dug-out, a fake valley, and landscaped, fake hills, etc., but unemployed vagrants that the Canadian gov't rounded up during the Great Depression and used as slave labour, paid only with a food ration and a tent to sleep in, but against their will! They did nothing wrong other than having lost everything in the big crash, in my old union office, because our local is old as dust, we had pictures that were taken back then, and the RCMP had bloody Vickers machine gun nests ringing the park, so if any of these hapless fellas tried to get away they'd be gun down!! They don't have that shit on any of the commemorative plaques dotted around the park. I got on the front page of the Moose Jaw Times Herald when I was five, the Queen and her husband were visiting, and Prince Phillip stopped and asked me if I having fun, and I said, no, I think you're boring, lolol, and he just said back, "Well, I think I'm pretty boring, too, sometimes", and all the peasant within earshot laughed, and there was much frivolity and rejoicing, lol, and I got quoted. Ahh, so that was my totally meaningless and segue about Crescent Park, I aim to please!

And we went home, we were supposed to wait until our post-nuptial coupling to experiment with the ice cream, but we couldn't wait of course. I'll just say I prefer the ice cream mostly melted vs. FREEZINGCOLD!!, and then she called her priest, and he was like, Mariya, you lunatic, I am NOT getting up at 3 in the morning to marry you two, you've only known each other 27 days!! No, you wrong, we met twice BEFORE this, both times at funerals, we even shook hands and everything!! He wasn't convinced, and she gave him a lecture on him letting us continue "To live in filthy sin, what if die not in state of grace, we go to Hell, and it will be ALL. YOUR. FAULT, Father, how you can even live on yourself??". So he relented.

He asked who will be, we said we didn't have any because we weren't telling ANYONE we're married, I made that mistake before and people's disapproval and all that, once bitten, twice shy, why do we need witnesses, isn't the word of a priest good enough these day or something? But we needed witnesses, so he said he knew two women in their late 70s-ish that would GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to be our witnesses. I liked the three AM part, it felt all spooky in the church, we asked to keep the lights off, we had flashlights and were dressed in our matching Capt. Kirk (for her) and Mr. Spock (for moi) onesies, with zip-on little slipper Star Trek shoes included, we had a pretend light saber fight (I know, mixing mediums there), right after our "I do's" before I kissed the bride, gotta get in those impromptu light saber fights just wherever and whenever ya can, because, hey, life is too short not to!!

And we were signing the paperwork, and we didn't even know these women's names, and they're old Ukrainian women, not from Ukraine, but their parent's woulda been, and, lo and behold!! A miracle unfolded, right before my eyes as they both signed their names,  J I L L!!!!, and that's when I yelled out, "The Jills are here, I finally found the missing Jills!!!", and Mariya almost had a seizure, and the women already suspected we were highly disturbed individuals, but they were staring at me, so I looked down at my wavy gold lines on my Star Trek jammies, and acted like I was shocked, like I didn't realized I'd just got married in my onesies, gasping in air, they I looked down at Mari holding her tummy and laughing so hard still, "Stop, Sunshine, stop, my stomach, no more laugh on me, puhhhleeeezzeee", and then I looked up at them, and I said one thing that made perfect sense of our crazy day, "Oh, don't mind us Jills, we're just poets!". 

- The End -

p.s. This might have been the stupidest thing either of us have ever done, or the most brilliant. I guess we'll have some fun at least finding out, but, we're married, from deciding (her deciding, she says I'm her slave boy from now on, and have no more decision making power of my own, that it will be much simpler and less stressful this way, lol, and I'm, like, okay, whatevs), to actually married, in less than 12 hours!! Geez, they make ya wait 24 hours to get a handgun, but let you get married anytime after midnight on the day you buy the license? That seems risky and perhaps, dare I say, even impetuous!! Don't they know there are people like Mariya and I just lurking out here with exceedingly bad judgment, no sense of proportionality, and a complete lack of impulse control?!? But at least I found *TWO* of the missing Jills!!

smoke-scribe

hear your mind composing 
while the the breathing cells
are calorie disposing

removed.-4rc2

This, I just, the prose, I can't... I. Was. There.

And okay calories, we&#8217;ve had our differences, but we need to pull together, I pissed in my panties I was laughing SOOO hard, I don't mean my usual tiny lady-like droplet, I mean I PISSED in my panties you asshole, Jill!! After sucking the reader in so deeply into your world you need to, like, have WARNING SIGN: HOLD ONTO YOUR BLADDER AHEAD!!!

Jason got a very good laugh out of me anyways, his newest pet-name for me is "pissy-panties", so thank you very much for that!! Seriously, this was just sublime, I really felt like I. Was. There. Like in the middle of some Steinbeck 3-page description of, like, a tree or something, but that just sucks one right into the writer's little universe, yet every line giving me a most visceral reaction as well.

You are a very rare talent, Jill, just amazing, and he still says, "Where are all the Jills, what happened to all the Jills???" just to make me laugh, too, ahhh. I love laughing, I just have to keep lots of spare thongs around, haha.