Those Long Highway Stretches and Big City Lights

As I take graphite to paper,

I try to remember those moments I wish to preserve

Thinking drawing is more personal, memorable

Than some quick pic that has no meaning to others

That would be just another cliché photo of an indistinct cityscape

Or a boring, never-ending highway

These things didn’t matter to me,

But the emotion that I felt staring out of that SUV window

At eleven p.m hours away from home

Was something I never wanted to forget.

I was staring out the window

Focused on the dark, black shoulder of the highway

Only occasionally passing another lone car or exit sign

I barely made out my parents quiet discussion

Through my one working earbud

Rock music playing almost silently on loop for hours

in the ear that wasn’t rested on the seatbelt

The same one that strapped me into one with my pillow and blanket

They tried to stay hushed, as they thought I was asleep along with my sibling

They liked small towns and back roads

And the only reason that we were on this near-empty 6-lane highway

Was for time’s sake

We planned to be at our destination by noon the next day

So they decided to drive for one more hour

Past our state’s capital city

Just to avoid the morning rush traffic that would set in just before the sun

I pretended to sleep when they looked in my direction

But I was wide awake

I promised myself that I wouldn’t miss it

The starry sky turned into window lights

The highway was far enough away and above the city

That I saw the entire thing

These lights and massive buildings mesmerized me

A week after I returned home

I tried to draw this city that I saw,

and the different long stretches of highway that we drove

I could remember the peaceful-excitement that I felt in those moments

But knew I wouldn’t remember them by a grainy picture on my I-pod

I felt the same when drawing and when looking into that light-polluted sky

I found beauty in this world

While others just saw long highway stretches and bright city lights.