•Driving with Dad•

We used to drive, gravel crunching 'neath the tires

Stopping by Scroggins country store He'd buy Me a chocolate milk,

Him a soda pop and a bag of peanuts which he'd pour in the top

We'd sing country songs from the radio, making up the words we didn't know, making up songs when there were none to sing to,

I'd always ask if he could take me down the big hill, he'd smile and idle us that way,

When We'd crest the top of that "Mountain" and start down the steep side, my breath would always catch, sort of like it's doing while I'm writing these words

The memories of driving with Dad are sometimes vivid, other times they're as murky as the waters at the bottom of Dirty Creek that ran next to my boyhood home

But I know they are always there, hidden in the expanse of my mind and lost in the DNA of my happiness

—Driving with Dad. © Nov '22, Joshua Toney