before :: after

and the experience of virginia weighs on me,
the rolling hills and the feel of thick tires underneath me, spinning in new directions,
windowpanes and ceiling tiles, the days we threw our coats and gloves to the ground in the searing sunshine, taking us by surprise,
the hours we hiked to mountaintops and just-thawed waterfalls,
the feet we dipped bare into frigid water,
the hands we scrubbed and scrubbed that still bore their dirt,
the black flecks under our fingernails that will only dissolve with time.

fourteen people curled in their seats, heads against either shoulders or windows on a travel bus rattling along interstate highways, sleeping, or trying to, through the night,

coming back here by necessity, not by choice.