If there is a Later

On a moonless night
screaming through spindly scrub pine
fifty miles straightaway
in eight minutes
the madness blows
through your mind

140 miles per hour
no time to wonder
except will I be alive at the end?

Later
if there is a later
you wonder
why
such a long road
is so short
you wonder how many seconds
of illumination
separate sense and darkness

centrifugal velocities
crush your skull
every rock, every nerve
jar the steel cage the steel skin
the bare massive weight of earth's atmosphere
whines and creaks
like Boris Karloff
the mysteries of fear and flight
are instantly explained


by the boy poets on asphalt