Dark passage veering off the reverence

She was going to dye her hair the color of the
Chevron station on Hwy 1
                              but we drove past it
              beer & poetry in the backseat
                                                sex crimes donated to science

We peeled out into the midnight camouflage
the broken white line read like morse code
                              stars flickering like japanese lanterns above
              nails driven like rain into the pavement

She smoked my last cigarette at dawn & fell asleep
so quiet, I wondered if she was still breathing
& I watched as the first rays of sunlight touched her face

my pale blue eyes invisible behind stained-glass RayBans
like church windows
                              beginning to fade behind the wheel
              just as we crossed the border