My First Literary Project

Shotgun Blues

A Short Story in Verse Form

By: Boy Du Jour

I.

24 / 7 convenience store

Staring matches with headlights

Double checking my phone.

A-buzzed with frozen soda,

Itching to get going,

Triple checking my phone.

Headlights staring back, winking,

Door pushed open swung,

Prepared apology forgotten.

II.

Riding shotgun and the radio’s on

Small talkin’, the silence weighs a ton

Road’s wide free, it’s the middle of the night

With every turn, we turn more right.

It’s been a while, and you miss me too

Tonight we’re back together, just me and you.

Let’s not talk about tomorrow, that’s a daylight away

Let’s talk about now, you’re here, I’ll stay.

Riding shotgun, on the expressway now

Radio’s on, it knows our songs somehow.

It’s the middle of the night, you’re taking me to your place

Your girlfriend calls, I can’t look at your face.

III.

I turn the radio down

I wont say a word now

I play with my phone

I pretend there’s an urgent message I have to reply to

You tell her you just went out for a coffee

And you’re all alone.

She calls you baby, you kiss the air under her hair

Your hand creeps to mine, and hold me

I let you.

IV.

We don’t talk about it, you bring my hand to your lips

I call you “baby”, we laugh at that.

We stop for coffee, we stop to pee

We both go to the men’s room, so casually.

V.

All of the calls we don’t hear,

And all of the calls we both fear.

All of the eyes, all of the eyes that see

All of the eyes that won’t let us be.

All of the happiness that we hide,

All of the sadness by your side.

All of the times I’ve ridden shotgun,

All of  the nights burnt under the sun.