Eli in the Passenger Seat
Ollie Stewart

Somehow, in the heart of nowhere
Your fingers part the evening sky
And in the space you bend, your will to cold air,
I see why some people spend their whole lives

On these roads that no one ventures anymore
A flare of red against the dusk
Raised veins; like yours
And you reach out to touch them ‘cos

If not here, then nowhere.
If not you, then no one.

“Drive faster,” and I do
With you laughing in the face of them:
The gods you would petition to
Before you learned; We purge our own sins

With my hand around your knee,
Buried beneath things you shouldn’t know
No one’s ever been so seventeen 
As Eli with his head back, eyes closed

36