You go through the car wash
the wind coming on
and back at the house
you’ve made a cake
and the cake is breathing
in the pan so this you think
is enough to crawl back to it
and maybe it’s enough
but maybe nothing is enough so
you sit with your jeans wet
and your seat wet in the car wash
and you don’t leave the car wash
and your mother comes to visit
and she says honey you look so
thin you thin thing
you thin wet thing
and in the neighboring lanes
only vague faces
passing through, waxing
and the night comes on
and the wind comes on
and the years go by
and you come back to the car wash
sometimes with your dog
who loves the car wash
and everyone you know has left
and even your dog leaves
in the sense that he dies
and now you are old
and sitting in your old car
and you are wet
and sitting in your wet car
with your wet cold dead dog
and the cake is breathing
moving and steaming.
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Illustration by Hayley Thornton-Kennedy
