A woman with dark red hair
Cropped short sits
In a dusty black car and a mustard yellow turtleneck.
Her earrings are hammered copper squares,
Their varnish worn off, leaving the
exposed metal
Green and naked underneath.
Her eyes are smudged with liner,
Her breath low as
She hums the words to the radio song.

A woman with wildly long blonde hair
Sits in a faded jeep, her features
Angular, austere,
Her eyes with a welcoming twinkle.
Her lips are pursed in concentration
As three children scream and kick
each other’s knees
While sucking their sticky fingers
In the far backseat.
A young girl smiles at me from inside
the greasy window,
Her hair just as her mother’s
Her eyes wild with enthusiasm and sweet,
Youthful excitement for whatever lies at
the end
Of her journey.
Around the girl’s lips is a Popsicle stain
of deep purpley grape.

The stoplight clicks from yellow to
green, and both cars are gone in a
second of exhaust.
I am left alone to ponder my glance into these lives
And continue to my destination
Along the winding pavement.