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 conjured 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,

I could reverse out of this dead-end

with a bit of pluck and a twelve-point 


turn, but then the wheels began to spin,

and somewhere in Blue Ridge

you started to cry. We thought we were 


going to die, and if we didn’t then fall 

in love, till sometime after midnight

the red-blue blur of tow-lights


flickering through Appalachian fog

winched us haltingly away from both

ledges, pointed us instead the long way back.

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