Thursday, September 30, 2021

The Drive to Paradise

The driver was an ancient man in a black Lincoln. 

He arrived unbidden and offered to take us anywhere, for free.

Robert, laughing, asked him to take us to paradise. 

He readily agreed, saying he knew the way.

Smirking, we three piled in the creaking back seat. 

As the car drove off, we noticed the engine’s eerie silence.

All that month, Gertrude had been goading Robert and I on. 

That had made us easy marks.

Robert asked the driver if he was a pervert

or just liked to show off his weird electric vehicle.

The driver replied coyly, “It’s not electric.

You’ll soon learn what it uses for fuel, when we reach paradise.”

That moment we entered a stygian tunnel. 

When we emerged, the world was different: ashen and dream-twisted.