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perhappened mag
issue 2: ROAD TRIP

love

WAYNE BENSON
The gas gauge of my dad’s red
Oldsmobile stayed on empty--
a risky thrill     every time he gripped
the ripped red leather of the steering wheel
 
the chance of being stranded 
the what if’s my sister and I turned
around     grew behind our eyelids 
while we waited for the slowdown
 
No one asked him to fill it up
we just trusted     like he trusted--
dad loved his rusty red Oldsmobile 
I never thought in terms of love 
 
I only knew three dollars here 
and five dollars there was what it took
to get to sunrises     sunsets and back 
and never be left stranded

Wayne Benson is a poet from Easton, Pennsylvania, and the current poetry editor of River and South Review. He is an MFA candidate with the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University, and currently has poems published in Crêpe & Penn Magazine and Mineral Lit Magazine.
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