Takeoff

one fluid motion:

door snaps open

pizza bag enters first

drops to the passenger seat

as my bum simulataneously

slides into the driver's

left foot disengages clutch

left hand flips power switch

right hand releases from

pizza bag handle, presses shiny

button to the right of steering column

'VROOMPop-Pop-gargle'

she lives.

Alexis lives

for me and I for her.

I hold her in my palms

feel the rhythm of her

four cylinder heart

pulsing faster and louder

as I fuel her appetite

as she breathes oxygen

we live.

We race

against the time

for the heat of the pizza

escapes fast

We race

against anyone who will

join our mad parade

of burnouts

redline shifts

weaving traffic

like a straw

we time lights

memorize exactly when they change

so we don't have to look at them

we focus on the gaps

left by lazy drivers

who have no sense of the

conservation of motion or

the speed of other drivers.

Alexis and I

have this down to a

science.

Colin and Co.