The Banshee screamed
a song of sirens, chasing us down
the scenic route, out of a state
filled with grape vines laden
with last year’s shriveled raisins,
and lake shores made of unrefined gravel
and severed ******’s feet.

Her shriek descended
on the windshield, a shower
of arrows off of a warring
edifice and the wind whipped
them in torrents, sewing a shredded dress
for her raging and thunderstruck body.

We were sun-burnt
and laughing, at two ponies
jumping 4ft fences and the twenty
turkey vultures circling
a mating ground made of a tree carcass
filled with nests and courting rituals.

The tolls to cross
the border were left way past
the back seat. So we soon forgot
about rain-washed vineyards
and houses filled to the brim
with empty birdcages
and broken porcelain dolls.

And as she drove,
my friend said that one
of our tires was grinding
and that we were 300 miles past
an oil change. But the Banshee
soon lost to the lake
and drown with the rest
of her drunken, scurvy sailors.

She said there are things I’d like to do
before I die, but I have no time.
So as her mouth made love to her cigarette
I thought about all the time wasted
giving head to white sticks
made of nicotine and death.
Every time used for touching yourself
inappropriately hoping to God
your dead grandmother cannot see you
or all the times spent ******* someone
whom you only wanted ‘cause they made you wet.

Every second taken to check yourself
in the mirror, cracked from becoming
so drunk you threw your door open in rage,
breaking it against a rack filled with shoes
you never needed. The minutes and hours
spent sinking, like quicksand into the fibers
of a couch watching images that never tell
you anything different, flicker inside a box
made of plastic and wires.

All the time accumulated like dust
under a rug, sitting and thinking
about everything you could be doing
or all the people you never saw more
of because you’re too busy.
She said there are things I would like to do
before I die, I have a list, flicking
a climaxed filter to the ground
forgetting the time she spent to **** it down.