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Death Watch
K. A. McGowan

Heading west on Interstate 10
and down to my last nerve,
I saw what seemed like slow-motion replay
a white eighteen-wheeler heading east
veering into the grass median
that kept us apart.

The V-cut median made the trailer & cab
jackknife, the cab gouging the earth
and sending chunks of soil into my lane,
which could have been over my casket.

But the skies were clearing the path
to the Jennings Fairgrounds, to a soft chair
and air-conditioning and ice chest,
maybe like the driver had in his cab
heading east on Interstate 10
before the earth opened.

—
Born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, K. A. McGowan lives in Duson, LA. His first full-length poetry collection, Pangaea, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Books.

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