In the Wilderness

Jack and Ginny take time-out to count
the beers in the cooler, eye the clock for last-call,
swallow vitamin C and B-complex, to eat
a red, round apple.
For hours they have hunted down wounds,
cursed and spit, counted gleeful coup
on one another.
Jack and Ginny rub against the corners
of walls, strangers, each other, mimic
what they have seen and heard. They are
Lewis and Clark lost in the wilderness.
There are shadows dancing
and the world is flat.

David Bayless