cigarette stained car seats, your eyes fixed on the dash,
the outside of your left shoe perpetually scuffed if not worn through.
how i felt sexy like ripples bouncing off the metal roof. you were cool
like a flapping wind through the rolled down windows. a summer savior
so i could feel like a two dimensional girl. picked eyelashes
off your cheeks to make wishes like love me love me not petals.

roll up the windows, i know i’m cooler
with my mouth open


but not talking. my head in your lap

driving below the speed limit.

i’m tepid now. try to gain traction through speech

but your eyes                     drift.

love
me not
so i can only write about heartbreak and not
important things like what would happen if—


the outside of your shoe perpetually scuffed if not worn through.
i should have known then: you break everything you slip into.