my lover drives an automatic, but she has an awful habit of keeping her hand on the clutch

she sings over the radio and speaks over me when she's deemed either one of us has talked too much

   she just doesn't understand the meaning of silence when it's

   due

she sings over pop ballads and hard rock and every mistake that she's ever made with me

she drives down the highway in the left lane, cracks her gum when I tell her I've already locked my seatbelt for when we get into an accident 

she doesn't get the concept of accidents

she doesn't get the concept of mistakes, either- 

   but she keeps her hand on the clutch in case she needs to

   pull us back in reverse-

   backtracking her words and our car into dense traffic

   praying that we don't get into an accident.