Travel With Friends

(“The earth is full of Your loving-kindness, O Lord. Teach me Your Law.” Psalm 119:64)

Warm it up or ice it down,
the earth is surrounded by divine attachment
forward and back.
Travel with friends, buy an old custom van,
and take off not knowing where to go;
that is the only way to never get lost.

Stop the first night where you land as the sun
blinds the driver’s eyes going down. No one likes
camping
so a hotel somewhere outside of Amarillo will do.
One friend is on the move, another is seeking treatment
for a fatal disease, two are sisters who are leaving home
for the first time to see what wonders there are down the road.
And the driver, he thought he knew his destination until

The next day doing Denver, he began to wonder why he
had no idea what direction to take. One convenience store clerk
said the way west was easy, but it all felt like the rattan weave
of a straight back chair. Stopping for directions every turn
and disorientation, the advice was harder to follow as the day
was lazy and did not contribute
to the need to know what direction to go.

They drove for hours, and tensions grew high. Lowering
their voices
the sisters wondered if they would ever reach the campus
of their dreams
on time.
The driver trembled for his friend so ill he barely breathed
his anxiety at all. But his face had grown red, his hands
pale and cold, and the one on the move propped his head up
on a pillow found behind the back seat.

The temperature rose as they iced his fevered brow,
the road was surrounded by angelic anonymity
over and under.
Travel with friends, driving a custom van,
and rounded the day knowing why they were going,
though lost,

They found the love that enraptures the universe.