Crack and Cake

So, I build a fire along the interstate,
Watch a trucker flee the scene of his crime─
There’s a newlywed & her head’s smashed like a pumpkin prank
only it’s turned into the night before Christmas & her family
is outside setting fire to her gifts,
father insists our flame will reach heaven
& it dawns on me, a fire this lovely
reminds me of my drug dealer P.J., how after his bank robbery
he bakes me a birthday cake & the
The 40 piece I buy right after
& the trucker makes it to the Mason Dixon line
only its winter and I’ve wrapped myself
up in the peace of this cold, black highway
& I see him with this girl who’s turned choke-colored in the face
after taking a hit of ready rock the size of wedding cake.
I keep building fires along the interstate.
It’s 2 am. I hear a truck leave the scene of a crime.
A mother will name all her children Home so they never leave.

Yvonne is a poet from Central Florida. She received her MFA in Creative Writing and teaches college English. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Pacifica Literary Review, and elsewhere.