The End of the Line

The skeletons leer at me

Bleached bones on red velvet

Whispering, whispering

The full moon swells

(white as the bones)

Gray clouds and rock outside

Dust hanging heavy within

A piercing whistle blows

The child skull giggles

Blood bubbles out of my ear

(red as the velvet)

Our train rolls on.

The moon will never set

And the rock will never crumble

The skeletons watch

As the blood runs down my cheek.

They whisper.

The Night Driver

I am the night bus driver. I am the king of the moon and the stars and the shadowed gravel. I am the master of the metal monster, and I control the beating hearts of the sleeping strangers. Hidden from the sun, I fly.

A small flock tonight: a man with frown lines and a briefcase and a mis-buttoned suit, a frazzled woman with a sleeping baby and a child that stares unblinkingly out the window, and a girl no older than sixteen with beautiful black hair. I wonder what she is dreaming of. Their journeys are parallel with mine, intersecting for only a moment. Our lives are tendrils of a spider web. None of us is the fanged weaver.

They sleep. They will not see the neon stars turn into real ones, the orange streetlights turn into a snow white moon, the concrete buildings become breathing trees. The child will see, though. The children are the only ones who notice as the world changes around them. That is why we fear them.

I could flip the bus off of the side of the road if I wanted. No one could stop me. It would take less energy than stopping the bus, less energy than changing the channel so that static isn’t humming on the radio. Just a flick of a wrist, and the sleeping baby and the girl with the beautiful hair and all the others—lost. For three hours and eighteen minutes, I own them.

Streetlights are becoming more and more frequent, and I can see the lights of the town winking in and out of view. Their journey will be over and they will be free, soon. I do not begrudge them this. I decided to let them go. This has always been my decision. Will it always be? I am the king of the moon, the master of the metal. I control and I fly. I am the night bus driver.