Four in the audience Two were staff

Four in the audience. Two were staff.

I read to a room that wanted

me to stop.

So I stopped.

Drove home through nothing—

pulled off at a station, pump six,

canopy buzzing so loud

I felt it in my fillings.

One car at the far end.

Dark. Engine off.

Nobody got out the whole time

I stood there with gas smell

crawling up my sleeves.

We were the same, that car and me.

Parked somewhere that wasn't the point.