What We Found

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What We Found


What we lost was cell service, then 

the reassurance in my voice that I knew 

where we were going or how to get back. 


That first hour I took a crack at a chuckle 

while we white-knuckled our belief 

that even mountain roads are sure 


to spit you out somewhere, till slowly

asphalt gave way to gravel and nothing

about the few shacks tucked back in the trees 


suggested open doors. I was sure,

even then, that I could reverse out of this 

dead-end with a bit of pluck and a twelve-point 


turn, and then the wheels began to spin,

and somewhere in Blue Ridge

you started to cry. We thought that we were 


going to die, or if we didn’t then maybe fall 

in love, till sometime after midnight

the red-blue blur of tow-lights


flickering through Appalachian fog

pulled us jerkingly away from both

precipices, pointing us the long way back.



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