Keep Art Alive :: “Unraveled” :: Art by Kelly Vivanco

“Our favorite parts are what we’ll keep,
ornamental parts of love,
and parts of memories,
so everything else has room to grow.
‘Cause in better light,
everything changes.”

Desert(ed)
by me

We flicker off-and-on like holiday lights
like the drain and fade
of an unpaid utility bill
like the final wink-blink of headlights
disappearing into this middle of night

Our ending is right up ahead
coming just into view
you take a sharp right at the horizon line
but that off-ramp screams closed
everything shrinking into a one-lane conclusion
stealing away our “last time”

Can you see it there?
The yellowing yield of a detour sign
the way it guides us up side streets and near head-on collisions
wreckage to dodge with a last minute
turn of the wheel, slamming breaks
shuddered expletives
as my left hand automatically reaches to cover your heart

As a young girl I used to stand quietly in the back
counting lines on a classroom clock
not wanting to admit that I couldn’t translate
numbers into time

You taught me to read shadows
connecting all my freckles and lines

We land somewhere ten miles past Barstow
the desert dry covering everything in grey and grime
my eyes burn from all this open sky
from the sun-licked wind on pinking skin
everything feeling like a scorpion’s sting

For a moment I think you’ll leave me here
dangling precariously on a one last word
because both of us are so good at running
and tripping on pretense
as we head for the door

But you grab my right hand instead
circling each calloused year gone by
on my open palm
you whisper a tarot card fortune
between my ears and my eyes

 But I can’t hear a single thing
until you let me go

Two of Us on the Run (live) :: Lucius