Guinotte Wise

Airhorns

wild free drunk on travel a road trip with
no end in sight
Bonnie and Clyde we passed trucks and
patrol cars eyeing
our speed and itching to stop us but not
quite seven over
and our laughter subdued though Bailey
U-Rollit straws
and mirrored shades mirrored their own
in caricature they
probably regarded as suspicious behavior
checked seatbelts
easily as we were in a convertible and she
had her bare feet
on the dashboard but not for cops just for
truckers' blasting
airhorns appreciating those long legs and
letting her know
they would love to open up a nighttime
jiffy and sometimes
we woud pull into a truckstop where one
hornblower had
and we'd engage him in conversation and
listen intently then
follow him to his rig watch him climb in and
run away laughing
leap over the doors and fishtail down the
highway grabassing
and hollering and hearing on CB his lack
of humor and his
threats and pleas to fellow truckers to put
a stop to our fun
then we'd turn onto lesser roads and pull
up in cornfields
drink our beer and toss out the stolen
moonpies and
pull the night sky right down on top of us
and she'd count
stars but never get past three it seemed.

Drive-in Movie

The old pickup faces the wrong way
the bed toward the big screen
lawn chairs either side of the cooler
we climb up and sit chairs
creaking with our weights hers say
a hundred mine twice that
we share an ice cold beer illegal in
these rows of many eyes
and gravel crunches with each new
arrival turn them fucking
lights out someone yells behind us
and the new guy complies
but shouts back unheard or maybe
unheeded and the popcorn
dances with the soda beckoning
us all to the refreshment
center but Judy and I have our own
and the line is long enough
that concession is made to the start
of MGM's sound blastard
announcing good god almightiest
we have speakers on both
sides now due to a lack of anyone
parking next to us because
they don't want our lookee-downs
into their lowslung makeout
nests and their humid fumbling
The movie is one we saw
on TV just a couple nights ago
so we retire to the cab
and daring escapades that begin
with thrilling hand jobs
and ghostly moans we want our
neighbors to hear but we
dissolve into helpless laughter
I start the truck its gutter
mufflers coughing we head out
huge faces on the screen
behind us contorting shouting.

Guinotte Wise lives on a farm in Resume Speed, Kansas. His short story collection, Night Train, Cold Beer, won publication by a university press and not much acclaim. Two more books since. His wife has an honest job in the city and drives 100 miles a day to keep it. Visit his web site: http://www.wisesculpture.com/blog