The Car Behind Me

The car behind me

Keeps speeding up

It might be going

Close to where I’m going

But it might be

Something else

This is an old country road

And so I slow down

Because on this road

This one-lane road

When you go too slow

The car behind you

Will go around

Instead of staying

On your tail

But this one just follows

Close behind

And when I go faster

It picks up the pace

I think I could brake

And send the car

Into my back bumper

But then we’d have to stop

And something tells me

I don’t want to stop

It’s still light out

And I’m grateful

Because I get the feeling

That if it were dark

I’d have that car’s high-beams

Bearing down on me

Filling my car

With enough light to blind me

And force me to pull over

In my backseat
I think about what I could use

To defend myself

If I’m run off the road

Nothing but a box

Of old records

And a shirt with a stain on it

That I keep forgetting

To throw in the wash

My phone is in the seat

Beside me

But when I go to reach for it

I swerve a little bit

And the car behind me

Beeps its horn just once

The phone spills over

Into the crack

Between the passenger side door

And the seat

No way to get it now

Without stopping

And I’m not stopping now

The horn sounds like

A warning

Not the way a horn

Is supposed to sound

Not something to wake you up

But something to tell you

That you crossed

The wrong driver

I put on my turn signal

And the car behind me

Does the same

I turn it off

Same thing

Now it’s no coincidence

Now I’m being followed

Now I need to decide

What I’m going to do next

There’s nothing but road

For the next six miles

And after that

It’s just a few gas stations

And a diner

That’ll be closed

By the time I get to it

On top of that

I know my car

Cannot take the speed

I’m maintaining right now

Normally anything over sixty

And things start smoking

And I hear that aggravated grumble

That any broke car owner

Is all too familiar with

Letting you know that

You’re pressing your luck

The road is too narrow

For what I want to do

But I notice the size of his car

And the size of my car

And I know there’s only one option

I push my car to seventy-four

The engine sounds like

It’s going to drop down

Out of the bottom of the car

But it gives me enough of a lead

And before the other car can speed up

I cut the wheel to the left

And careen into the other lane

Going in the opposite direction

It has the intended effect

As the other car is too wide

To pull the same move

And the road won’t narrow

For another few miles

By then I’ll have this car

Off North Taylor Road

About a mile from here

And once I hit that road

I know the other side roads well enough

To get myself lost

From whoever was in the car behind me

I look through the rear window

And see their car stopped

Just stopped

Idling on the road

Either deciding

Whether or not they want to come after me

Or wait around for another car

They can follow home