The End of Nights Part 2

I published a poem in my collection Inhale the Night called Dark Knowledge. It’s about a lost woman named Leanne who finds herself in several relationships after a debilitating accident. She loves a man named Gene but can’t bring herself to end it with her other suitors. This is a continuation of her story in a weekly serial, The End of Nights.

Find the first episode here.

The End of Nights

Jeanie texted Beth from
The front seat something
Cunning about Gene –
Tires left the road,
Leanne was thrown
Before the brakes gave out
Like games boys played
It was easier to die
All at once than slow
She found out near
I-675 to Madison, years
Later as the cigarettes
Turned ash – her friends
Had burned away like filters,
Chain-smoked in addiction –
Maybe she was better without
Gene: he was just another vice
And she had more than she
Could handle with nicotine and
Captain Morgan in her glove box
Underneath a registration with his name:
His last text said the Pontiac
Was his but she would sooner
Park it in the lake than give in
To his demands: she knew how
Gene got in the car: his whore would never
See the backseat of her Firebird.
The cruise control was set on 55,
Before the last drop of white rum
Pulled her under.