From Below the Hood

I haven't been posting, or reading much lately- I've been really busy with getting my license- I enrolled in truck driving school, and have been pretty busy for the past three weeks learning all the ins and outs of not getting run over or failing your road test. The school I'm going to is apparently considered the best in the northeast, (as all the recruiters for the trucking companies tell me) and is widely held to produce some of the best drivers. This is mainly due to the fact that you have to be pretty hardcore and serious about becoming a driver to make it through the course- it's a lot of work, but I'm having a blast and so far successfully building a new career! I'm really jazzed about learning to drive 80K pounds of vehicle fully loaded, and the offers are piling up from companies. I'm thinking of starting off on local routes until the little one gets a bit older, so I'm not away for too long at a time, with my wife's schedule requiring me to be home a little more. As time goes on, I'm almost positive I can make enough on long hauls to take care of the family single-handedly. Plus, as everyone likes to point out, we get to play with trucks! If you have to work for a living, you might as well enjoy what you do. Wish me luck!

Somewhere North of Portland, In an Old Lumina

In the liquid darkness, not quite moonlight all

barns look gray and empty-

Bloodshot eyes glance light between slatted boards, rasp

of a buzz saw, I am

following still the

blankness of yellow lines-

Bordered by my headlights, punching forward, pressing me

the sun long since fled

Trees now press closer on all sides, reaching

whispering, "our boy?"

with eldritch and terrible intent, sinister with latent

hidden horrors

Voices just beyond hearing- only

the engine drone, whine of eight idiot cylinders

mocking reminders of a wrong turn, forgotten routes

The bright lights and comfort of the

interstate, home a certainty not far is

how many miles from this

Place

Lost can be

Fear in any town