they found the car wrapped around a cottonwood,

radio still humming something sad and slow.

blood on the dashboard,

beer cans in the footwell—

the kind with the eagle on the label.

-

he was twenty-three.

drunk and sure he was invincible.

said god rides shotgun

and the devil's in the rearview,

laughing.

-

the girl beside him didnt scream,

just bit her lip hard enough to taste

every bad decision

he had ever made.

-

later, the cops shook their heads,

wrote "reckless"

like it meant something to the dead.

-

mama leaves the porch light on anyway,

said maybe hes still out there,

walking home barefoot

with his jacket over her shoulders.

trying to remember

the words to a song

he never finished