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Original artwork by Cayman Chen

And I’ll Be Out All Night


Jill Michelle
Poetry

Radio on, we ride the gray snake of highway through New England

October—the shock of saffron-shot treetops and tangerine leaves

Always startling, seem even more so along this country road, after two

Decades of Florida’s ceaseless green, yet they daze me less than the man

Rambling next to me, who casually shifts the red Mini’s gears, left hand

Unconsciously tapping song beats against the steering wheel as he

Narrates the mixed CD he’s made for this road trip date to not-so-

Nearby Connecticut, a two-hour pilgrimage to my first pizza place in

East Haven, where he slides next to me in the booth instead of across

Reminds me how simple and magical an act of love can be.