Prompt: write a poem based on the title of one of the chapters from Susan G. Wooldridge’s Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words.
Gas, Food, Longing
it’s a Friday afternoon
the car is already packed
and an old paper atlas
is laid out before us
it’s a relic these days
like an ancient, lost language
and we the only scholars
committed to its preservation
this is the game we play
as often as calendars allow
each choosing a letter and number
for unknown coordinates
then, with the flip of a coin
the answer is given
and we race to discover
our next destination
there are few essentials needed
to reach the charted goal
but time has taught us
the trick of travel
is to focus on the journey
a favored playlist
a cooler full of snacks
a camera for documentation
we’ll do it all in just two short days
appeasing the hunger within
the yearning to breathe an unfamiliar air
invites us on the road again
I want to do this!