Love, After

[Wjames]

Love, After (edit 1, the Pen)

Thirty years of clutching
the wheel through blizzards
and black ice skids.

Twenty years of habitual
designated driving,
hand over glass. 

Ten years now of you
offering up the passenger seat,
I swatch the hills roll. 

Love, After

Thirty years of clutching
the wheel through blizzards
and black ice skids.

Twenty years of habitual
designated driving,
hand over glass.

Today, yesterday, tomorrow
I automatically aim
for the passenger door,
sink into music I haven’t chosen
and read.

Hey Ella, I think the edit is an improvement - much clearer now as to what has changed (the partner stopped drinking).

The poem feels to me like a mixture of two Bill Callahan song I love, Winter Road and Small Plane.

My one nit is 'swatch' - not sure if that is the right word? In my mind I just see the watch brand - I know it is probably about the fabric representing the landscape etc (sinking in to the landscape sort of thing) but that is not my first or second thought when I read it.