Thursday 8:00am

She had made a life with him in Clayton, Indiana.
But Thursday 8:00am
she was in his rusted red pickup
already going 80 on I-70
windows down, hair down
whipping across her face
as she kicked his empty beer cans
onto the floor of the passenger seat
with the rest of his dirty magazines
and crumpled receipts.
Green exit signs flashed overhead
as Johnny Cash bellowed from the radio

“Hold on honey I'd like to say
I'm busting out and breaking away”*

Suitcases slid in the truck bed
with every pass of a car.
250 miles behind her,
he would just be waking up
to a shitty excuse for a kitchen
and a dog that needed to piss.

“If anybody asks where did I go
Tell 'em I went where the wild goose goes”*

She pictured his face when he found the note
And realized she was gone,
Frozen pizza in the freezer,
Don’t forget to feed the dog.
She saw the empty bottle breaking against the wall
heard the mutterings getting caught on his lips
too sober to make sense of anything.

She smiled.

“I'm leaving now yeah
I'm leaving now”*

*These lines are not my work. They are from the Johnny Cash song, "I'm Leaving Now".