Terminus

Route 66 ends at the beginning
of the Santa Monica pier.

We watched fishermen
still in the dark
on the edges
of the boardwalk, making small
talk, children baiting,
showing off for tube top
lip gloss lovers
held safe between their bodies
and guardrail.

We watched a car,
white, wide, and low.
Gliding neither toward
nor away, arriving
at the endpoint just
to undo all the motion,
tidal attraction
to the ends of the earth
shifting into sea.

Route 66 ends
before we realize what we’ve done.

Michelle Fisher is a poet, student, and activist from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She is completing her English creative writing degree at Wesleyan University with a poetry thesis about the mythologization of AIDS and New York City in queer history. You can find her @shirahdevorah on Twitter, at michelledfisher.wordpress.com, and anywhere there are cats to be snuggled!