Somewhere Around Alva
Timothy Tarkelly
Spring 2021
Timothy Tarkelly
Spring 2021
For Tyler Wayman
We were all coffee and carnage,
joking about how terrible it would be
if we flew off the road
and breathed our last in a damp ditch.
Not for the obvious,
but because “what could be worse
than dying in Oklahoma?”
The last time we stopped for food
we had to stop again for Tums
to soothe the fire in our antsy guts.
We declared we’d never
eat gas station pizza again,
but here we are touting coffee
and greasy food, heroic levels
of assumed invincibility. I’m just saying,
maybe we should master living
before we talk shit on death.
We were all coffee and carnage,
joking about how terrible it would be
if we flew off the road
and breathed our last in a damp ditch.
Not for the obvious,
but because “what could be worse
than dying in Oklahoma?”
The last time we stopped for food
we had to stop again for Tums
to soothe the fire in our antsy guts.
We declared we’d never
eat gas station pizza again,
but here we are touting coffee
and greasy food, heroic levels
of assumed invincibility. I’m just saying,
maybe we should master living
before we talk shit on death.