Driving Alone on a Snowy Evening (After Frost)

There is no reason that I know
To go on waking, eating, so
I turn the urgent wipers off
And watch the screen sift up with snow.

They’ll conjure emptiness, despair,
Disease in the wings, a failed career.
Those inward, ticking moments when
The seduction of stopping obliterates fear.

The car purrs on. I do not brake.
The choice of crash I leave to fate.
A tree, a bridge, a railway line.
Behind the brightness dark shapes wait.

The snow and ceiling kiss, then meet.
The view’s as white as a winding sheet.
The heart still beats repeat repeat.
The heart still beats repeat repeat.

from The State of Prisons

By kind permission of the author and Carcanet