Two Songs from a Car

HAWK

Tonight as the car turns onto the dirt road,

its lights penetrate a world

to the right;

you know because tonight

out of its trees, shadows,

god knows what, entrails,

a hawk rises up as if floating;

he flies high up over

and across the snowy road

you're driving through your life on

like a surprise-

the grey parts if your life

taking wing,

a promise,

your very self

escaping into the skies.

LOVE IN WINTER

Outside the car

it's like life,

this winter park

surveyed while moving,

snow on the benches,

lamplit,

nobody around, the landscape

mute

while you skid on slickness

into the one ditch

where everything makes sense-

the car lights still shining

into the flurry,

you see how it's

too late to turn back.