TAKING A DRIVE

driving down a back road
taking a drive through
Eastern Shores Maryland
going fast, feeling the car
as it purrs and hums under my
direction, the stereo plays as
the black top blurs in front of me
and behind in the rearview
the day is unseasonably warm
for late February, i can hear the hum
of the electricity in the powerlines
as i go fast, faster, harder then i should
i cannot help myself, the adrenaline rushes
then from out of nowhere, there is a farm
coming into view, something made me
slow down, there is a corral with horses
so i feel the need to stop-there were
two brown and white females and one
shiny black stallion, they were running back
and forth, the length of the enclosure
stopping every once in a while to feast
on alfalfa- i was awestruck, not sure why i stopped
but just taking a moment to watch beauty
in motion gave me pause, i never really took the time to
just slow down and appreciate my surroundings, i
watched them a couple minutes more,  just leaning
against the fence, taking in the moment, when out of nowhere
a black sports car was racing past me down the same road
i was on, at the same rate of speed i was doing before i
stopped, a police cruiser was right on his tail in
hot pursuit- when i got back into my car, i thought to
myself, hey that could have been me.

by Michael Perry