What We Found

WHAT WE FOUND

We lost cell service first, then 

the reassurance in my voice that I knew 

where we were going or how to get back. 

For a while we white-knuckled our belief 

that even mountain roads pop you out 

somewhere eventually, till slowly

asphalt gave way to gravel and nothing

about the few houses tucked back in the trees 

suggested open doors. I was sure,

even then, that I could back 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 there, or maybe fall 

in love, and it was dark enough—

is sometimes still dark enough—

for the two to blur like the red-blue

of tow-lights through morning fog.