Watch Your Speed

"Trouble ahead, trouble behind."

"You must be getting tired of driving.", she said. And I had to admit that I was, a little. "Casey Jones" was playing and I thought about him, and wondered if he knew he was going to die, considering what the next few seconds held for him. I'll bet that, even knowing that this was the end, he was tempted to just gun it and try to crash through. Maybe. Or maybe he just held on, hoping he would survive.

"And you know that notion just crossed my mind."

In another time, in another place, I sat and listened to the Dead and wondered that I had never heard it before. I was in love and loved everything she did. That was before the long sleep overcame me and I dreamt the years away, focused on the strange images sinking below the horizon behind me, trapped within the billowing steam, and heard the cacophonous voices that fed me pellets of compressed sorrow and distilled fear. That was before I slowed down to get my bearings and noticed she was gone.

The car jumped ahead, bringing me back, and I wondered again about the brakes. A little too soft for my liking but then I considered that sometimes coming to crashing stop, if you survive, re-invents the landscape and mountains are formed from the plowing gravel, valleys are revealed in the aftermath of disaster, and if you strike out for the nearest hill you'll likely see something you hadn't noticed before. You just don't want to look back at the wreckage.

"The trouble with you
Is the trouble with me
Got two good eyes
But we still don't see."