Headlights

(Originally published in 2 Meter Review, 2021)

I

                       imagine

                myself crashing            

           flying dying mangling

         this body I never owned

     this home I never chose this

  place I release myself from with a

flick of the wrist a twist of the wheel

           I imagine all of the ways I can fly beyond

        the beams laid out before me into the night

    in the moments before I am welcomed back into

the comfortable dark that masks what should be mine

before the dark

there is pure light

before the dark

                                                                            me because I know that beyond this moment

                                                                                lights and darkening nights that surround

                                                                                   I have been given despite the flickering

                                                                                         I grow steadily to accept the home

                                                                                         louder I grow with these days

                                                                                        that grow brighter stronger

                                                                                        of days that burst with life

                                                                                       fade away in oblivion

                                                                                     of days that don’t

                                                                                   a time of rays

                                                                                  imagine

                                                                                  I