Sometimes I hear things when I drive Most of the time it's car horns Sometimes it's the screeching of tires on asphalt screaming to be stopped I try not to focus on it because you shouldn't be distracted while driving So I keep my hands on the controls And my eyes on the road
Sometimes in the mirrors I see your face Glowing faintly like some kind of ethereal movie image Sent by a projector with a bad bulb Sometimes I wonder if I drive alone or if you're there But that train of thought sends my misled hands faulty directions And I drift out of my desired lane
Sometimes I wonder if the voice coming from the speakers is yours And if its the same voice haunting the air vents Whispering lies into my vulnerable mind I try to ignore them but it gets to me after a while And eventually my glass house of bottled substance abuse and sustenance comes crashing Leaving my hands to crawl on a broken field of glass and reanimated pains that slept dormantly at peace
So I staple my hands to the wheel And glue my eyes to the road And try my hardest not to cry and swerve into the first car or railing or tree I see And pretend that face in my mirror behind me is just the trick of the light
I still think about the tree you hit I never told you that we visited it once after you But only once
I ran my fingers across the twisted and scarred bark I studied the missing chunk of wood and felt nothing but an ache in the pit of my soul
I'd visit it again sometime if it weren't for the same reason I haven't visited you: I don't know where to go.
Roads and highways and backwoods remind me of the cemetery you rest in Each tree, each house, each street light and sign All of it looks the same Much like the gravestones creating the labyrinth you stay in
But if one day I do stumble across your grave Or that tree I'll bring you a grape soda and a blunt And a Mickey Mouse for your collection And we can talk again Just me and you