Lines Poem by Dairedee BurrisLandwehr

My mother drove barefoot
Setting the needle at 80
Eating up the road
Like ashes of a lover.

I sat in the back
Eyes pressed together
Praying to a god
I no longer believed in.

It annoyed her
That I was afraid
Throwing her into
Overdrive.

'You want scared? ' she'd say
Turning around to face me,
Swerving from one side
To the other

Laughing when we hit
The warning strips,
Watching me jump
Bump bump bump.

I was never prepared
Feeling naked and blind
The way she went
Between poles.

She’d go into stores shoeless, too
Padding down linoleum aisles,
Her heels coming down hard
While I trailed behind,

An afterthought,
Gathering stares from
Suburban housewives
Sniffing for gossip.

I used to wish
The warnings were in life,
Indicating when she
Went over the lines, and

I should brace for impact.