Fontana, 4 (Via County Road)

It’s still night when I cruise–
down the highway’s broad curving brushstrokes
of dark pavement and rock-strewn shoulders,
my car click-click-clicking as I wait
for a pair of headlights, shaking and yellowed,
to lumber past me before I swing wide onto the county road.

I look for the old white dog in his yard,
look for the striped ‘coons and gray rabbits that,
inevitably,
will erupt from the pitch-black-ditch in a desperate attempt
at survival.

Dawn has crept in and is turning the sky
from ink-black to velvet-navy.
Ten miles later and the navy is breaking
at the seams and bright Kansas cornflower blue
starts budding on the horizon.

Sunrise now is slow and small.
The sky is reluctant to shed its blankets
on these still-cold nights.
But soon it will stretch its arms
in ribbons of pink and orange
to welcome us into spring.