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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Entropy (Honorable Mention - Poetry)

by Zeke Hudson

I wasn’t ready and we had nightly conversations about it.
They all went the same,
like hymns.
I had to escape the holidays,
so I took off one morning to go north
for the city. I drove with
failing brakes and
water like the next flood on my windshield. 
I thought about what it would be like
to lose control.
I thought about taking my foot
off of the pedals,
letting go of the steering wheel, and
trying to relax.
When alone, I doodled people looking away from each other,
imagining different things.
I tore each one out of my notebook
and put them in a folder.
I thought they were pretty like the way
good-byes are pretty.
When she felt like she had to leave,
she told me first,
as if inviting me to come.
I thought inertia won battles.
I didn’t know much about wars;
sometimes I said
that I was a pacifist,
but then I felt like
I was cheating myself out of something,
and I felt like
maybe I wasn’t telling the truth. 
I listened to all the same songs back then.
I heard the hum
of my tires
and followed my headlights around each corner and
every time there was just
more road.

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