strip mall ode / elegy 

i don't want to get where i'm going.
i want to buy something useless
or fix my car in the sky.
i want to eat with my hands
in the folding chair world.
cross my fingers in my pockets.
tell a glorious lie
about where i'm from. 
dry clean my lungs & wait 
for them in my idling zombie car.
turn the moon inside out
& shake it for change. 
the glass eye shop windows 
& all their open secrets.
once, here was a place we came
to worship a hole in the earth. once,
here was a buffet where
no one left hungry.
teeth in a little mason jar.
a sea gull flock lost & without
an ocean in sight. these are
the places that i go 
to be fifteen again. where 
i make a boyfriend from 
the ditches & the farewell weeds.
a dandelion is always winking.
a secret not received.
i love to pull over. i love to
be where i don't belong
which is easy because
i don't really belong anywhere.
broken tongue 
of an old ice cream place.
a dog shitting 
on the one little patch
of grass. there are flies 
already. halos for fallen birds
& trash. i stay just
a little longer. the highway
outside is a piece of licorice.
the stoplights, cough drops.
i have driven this road
in my sleep.