Drive

There’s something in the air that smells like promise.

There’s nothing that I need to do or be.

Life says “Go here!” but I’m a Doubting Thomas—

I only pin my faith on being free.

I’m one who meets a compromise and legs it

And always has one eye on the unseen.

I never fail to take the nearest exit

And always treat each red light like it’s green.

This life’s a war where no one fights beside me

Or cares if I should perish or survive.

I load my car up like a gun

And aim it at the setting sun

‘Cause there’s a voice inside me that says “Drive.”

I always keep my eyes on the horizon.

I always count the miles and not the cost.

And when my soul gets down to moralizin’,

My rear-view mirror shows me what I’ve lost.

Tomorrow’s journey always looks inviting

‘Cause yesterday’s was like a lost and found.

I always think the new will be exciting

And wind up swimming where my old self drowned.

It ain’t fair, but this life is like a guidebook—
You always take the thoroughfare you know.

I’ll wish, but I will never pray;

I’ll stop, but I will never stay—

‘Cause there’s a voice inside me that says “Go.”

She was the sweetest thing that this life gave me.

I hummed her like the chorus of a song.

No matter how I fucked up, she forgave me.

Her smile told me that I could do no wrong.

I thought she was an angel sent from Heaven.

I saw salvation when she looked at me.

When God says “Ten,” the Devil says “Eleven,”

And eyes can hide a world of treachery.

I think of her and wish I’d never met her.

I’d kill to wipe those memories away.

I found her in my best friend’s bed

And shot her three times in the head—

Now she’s the voice inside me that says “Pay.”

There’s only one road and it can deliver

A man to heaven or the calaboose.

It’s caked and dusty, like a dried-up river,

And twines around this country like a noose.

We say that standing still is terrifying,

But every time we move, we never change.

A house is for the lonely or the dying.

A car is for the freeway and the range.

I starve the need that will be my undoing.

I feed the engine that keeps me alive.

I know my dream is just ahead.

I’ll chase it down until I’m dead

‘Cause there’s a voice inside me that says “Drive.”

Copyright 2016 Matthew J Wells