Driving on, into the storm, I scroll the distance
Of static between radio stations.
Ahead:
The shallow, grainy depth headlights cut into sleet.
And behind:
the winter’s painstaking erasures.
“Out of whose womb came the ice?”
the gospel preacher,
The single strong signal on the radio, asks.
A point on a breadthless length,
I move and stand still.
A tunnel opens before me and closes behind.
Eric Pankey is the Heritage Chair in Writing at George Mason University. A new book, AUGURY, is forthcoming in 2017 from Milkweed Editions.