Trudge
(Published in Jubilee City, 2005)

Near the Arkansas River under a canopy of trees, a bunch of us drank beer and smoked the home grown this area is known for but it was getting late.
We were fifty miles from home close to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cradle of the Five Civilized Tribes and the end of the trail of tears.
I rode up there on the back of this guy I worked with’s Kawasaki 900cc 2 stroke motorcycle. It was really fast.
I had a great time hanging out with Tom Laughlin and Dobbs from the east side who happened to be up there.
We all got pretty drunk and high, but being double on a bike means we should go before it gets dark.
We headed west on a two lane toward the low sun. It was right there in our eyes. I could barely see. But my driver kept going faster and faster. Till every thing was going by in a blur and the pitch and the vibration of his motor cycle was very high, I hunkered down behind him out of the wind and we kept going faster.
This wasn’t good because we smoked a ton of weed and are drunk with no helmets just t-shirts, cut-offs and goggles.
And I had never gone this fast on a motorcycle before front or back.
The strong wind, the blurry roadside and the screaming high pitch, it was fucking scary.
I needed to know just how fast we were going so I looked over his shoulder and in an instant I was blinded by the sun and the wind jerked my head back, I hunkered back down worrying how he was seeing. Then I carefully peeked over his shoulder again just barely catching the briefest of a glance of the needle straining at one hundred and fifteen miles per hour when my goggles flew off and I turned to see them fly and saw a giant white fifty seven coup devile on our tail so close you could touch it and it was extremely well lit and I could see the passengers way too good.
I saw my shadow on the car’s hood and seven passed out drunk teenagers from that party- they were behind the bluish sun blasted glass of the old Cadillac and it was being driven by a drunk kid squinting one eye to see.