The idea of travel

Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, The, March-April, 2009 by Udell Player, Jr.

Nestor rear-ended a phantom--
south on 14--
Now on the road--
he questions the idea of travel--
for a moment he remembers--
a sweetness no one owned--
the rules were dinner--
day and night--
cooked up with--
a brown man's wet shirt--
bent down shading the hand he praised--
and the taste of the market cracked into both--
begins to rise--
not soldiers or harmony--
but textures broke his heart--
that's the trouble with this thing--
always breaks down everywhere--
touches his chest--
slams the hood--

Closes the drivers side--
fastens in tight--
takes all his fondness--
to turn it over again--
sees his reflection in the windshield screen--
thinks of Aswell in the tree--
and the small of his back--
now no one turns him down--
or warns him--
of his foolish worthy blinders--
it's just passing anyway--
by missing damp mornings, blessing departures--
and breath--
work--
tightness--
and all the reasons we better not--
start--
wipes all this beading--
now on his forehead--
brakes hard--
that's the trouble with this thing--
takes the curves too fast--

UDELL PLAYER JR