Palpitations

Signs for towns that didn’t own us

Trees carved for someone else

Rest stops we’d never grace to stretch

Long stretches of terrain we missed every time we blinked

No records broken for state license plates passed

Flooring it, I wanted to break the sound barrier

The roadside coffee was only passable

But it made my heart rattle as we drove, the sun rising on our right

The tin can tied by a string to the back of the Chevy

It never loosed, never caught itself on a stray post

Longing, it tuk-tuk-tuked along with us, the two of us

And the motor and the radio that melted into fuzz

As we drove North, out of range of the station

These palpitations, inspired by you or invented by me

Palpitations are my body’s way of telling me I’m finally free

Sun overhead, the shadow’s gone now

My left arm raw from the wind

Who knows where we’ll be when the sun goes down

But does it really matter when there’s nowhere that we have to be

The page missing in the atlas is where we’ll go next

State lines snapping like twigs beneath our tires

The roadside coffee is still just passable

But’s it’s kept my heart racing all day, the sun settling on our left

The tin can tied by a string to the back of the Chevy

Still hasn’t loosed, hasn’t worn itself out at all

Longing, it tuk-tuk-tuks along with us, the two of us

And the motor and the radio that’s melting into fuzz

As we drive north out of range of the station

These palpitations, inspired by you or invented by me

Palpitations are my body’s way of telling me I’m finally free