Westward

Indiana maybe. Somewhere
not long before Chicago
we rolled into dark shelter 
behind a growling semi

You slept, contorted
narrow seat pushed
forward to fit kids
behind us: yin/yang somnolence
underneath collected miscellany
and two days worth
of snack wrappers

I sank behind the wheel
into a fretful pause

Short hours later
I slipped from
The leather seat grown
stiff with morning chill
stretching
the kinks out of thirty hard
hours driving west

The dogs leaped over waves
of dew-encrusted grasses
swishing wet to the knees
cresting hills fog shrouded
suddenly limned
by the rising sun 
Cattle lowed
in a distant barn

I meandered through the rest-
stop bathroom, coffee shop
then settled back in, captain
of our dreamy prairie schooner
and raced the dawn toward
home