Nightriding

Woke up late this fine foggy morning...
Well late for me= 6AM.
Was up past bedtime last eve,
driving SE-XWay & McClellan Highway & MA Pike
all wonderous curves in the dark
a myriad of firefly headlights & liquor store windows
& the shoosh of passing traffic.
We're all designated in our own unseen lanes,
inches & minutes from each other & disaster.
I have to take night pics of Eastern Bank.
I have to verify Verizon billboard lights are on.
I am not getting paid for these hours,
but that is part of the gig these days.
If I was wholly doing a night "route"...well, that
would be another story.
And although I make a mental note here & there,
what lights are down or dim.
I am on specialized recon.

I listen to World Cafe on 91.9
& LoveLine on WFNX.
My company & companion.
I talk back, I exclaim...I sing...
I am tired & lonely & there is no one to talk to.
Not even the cat.
Just me out here,
amid thousands of twentysomethings enjoying the fickle summer.
I cut through The North End,
en route to Rte 1A entrance...
a beefy man in a red jersey & waywards cap,
puts his arm around a sweet young thing.
Awww.
There are families & children leaving Italian restaraunts.
There are Monday night drunks.
The tourists & what is this...
a couple women in ceremonial Indian headdress?
What I take for bleached blonde highlights in the instersection distance,
is actually a shimmery wrap.
One woman passes on the sidewalk w/ an Amish-dressed man,
another slits past in the dark parkway.

And I in my refrigerator,
the gigantic empty work van
with just the buckles clacking behind my seat,
after every bump.

Long drive home later,
lot of roadwork on Rte 95.
Torches & tractors lurch alongside,
menacing sci-fi lights & extreme sounds...
I am tired.
This morning too.