For Ezra

Pound punching pound
Old rotary phone
Won't work
It's midnight or close to it
The operator has gone
Lines are left
It's midnight or close to it

The engine purs
The horizon of gray fogged
Black worn out silhouettes
Glazed with night pollution
Mini metropolitan light pollution
It's midnight or close to it

I drove for ever unimpeded
I didn't notice mile markers
I didn't notice coastal evacuations routes
I didn't realize you were asleep
It was midnight or close to it

I had bought this pack of cigarettes
In Indiana
To stay awake through the night
All my windows down listening
To the world in AM frequencies
You might not have been there or were
It's midnight or close to it

Native chants and evangelical preachers
Local sports local news
Dead air
White noise
Dead air
It's midnight or well past it

How about this rest stop
Or this over pass
I pulled over onto highway 6
Without realizing who'd been here
Just for gas and a rest
Kerouac had been picked up here
Iowa I was sure of it
West of Davenport I was sure of it
It's midnight or well past it

And now
Sitting outside your apartment
A cigarette burns through on its own
And I have a key
But I am still driving home
Well past midnight