A new poem by Josiah Morgan.

Riding in Cars with (Mostly Straight) Boys

titled after a play by Sam Brooks

I

Back then Kade had a death
wish, driving over a hundred
an hour after school, past
young lads, parents, through
the suburbs, cop cars, girl
friends. I drove too, by
the seat of my pants. Now
Kade’s dead, and I alive,
hurtling faster than a hundy
toward the future. Back
then we went bowling.
Kade scored strikes;
I veered toward the gutter.

II

That night we were parking on the back street

in a cone of sleek overshining light.

You had recited string theory,

stopped to nearly get near me, breathing

readied your next leaving. It was then

I saw the other men in you

and knew we were the same                   I knew

Today, Chris Tse steps down as the editor of The Friday Poem and passes on the baton to Hera Lindsay Bird. Please send poems to info@thespinoff.co.nz.