Viking Ship, Interstate 70, 1976

We are alone except
for snake eyes beaming by
every twenty minutes or hour.
their wakes invisibly mingling
with ours, like molecular
conversations

Our cocoon floats,
escorted by the moon,
our private spotlight,
as mountains,
trees, and deserts fly by
at varying quicknesses

The sky opens wide
Lunar landscape beside us,
and there: a Viking ship
frozen on sandy seas
Stained luminous
in moonlight, and dwarfed
by steep cliffs and
cascading foothills,
skirted by a ribbon of black
highway snaking off to meet
the invisible horizon
and circle the moon

Derelict and noble
Otherworldly, if not
for its dependability
This ship, with hubcaps
for shields,
in a waterless land,
a fixed mark,
On the trip to my parent’s
parents’ house,
And my first
taste of wonder
at four

~MH, 2004