Traffic got nowhere.
I got coffee.
The barista put vanilla in my drink,
so it could be sweeter,
and she means well,

but this all feels like a heart attack,
outside every city—

myocardial infarction: death of the heart tissue.

I broke down before Seattle.
Restarted my alternator, and put a solvent in the engine to break up sludge.

Further south a truck slammed into a retaining wall,
and that clotted up quick.
We kept driving.

Zach Pike-Urlacher currently splits his time between Mount Shasta, California, and Shaw Island, Washington. He does stream and river restoration work in California but is currently living on Shaw, building a retreat cabin and writing a novel.