"driver's seat"

"driver's seat"
after an observation of wreckage by jake kilroy.

how many car rides in the hills of your hometown do you need
to make sure you one day make it home for good?
he wondered, as he pushed his fingers further into the cassette deck,
spitting up blood, coughing up memories, dragging his tongue,
hyperventilating and sucking in the cool night air of yesteryear.
he watched the unmoving structures of man below the cliff,
and he prayed to the uninterested god of stability
to break the bones and shred the nerves of his enemies.
the lashings of licorice ropes came at him
in the steady hands of every childhood demon,
cackling with fire and wide-eyed with wildfire.
but it would get better.
he didn't know it then.
but every demon gets tired.
you just have to take the beatings.