Donna Drive

It's been a long night.

A fucking long one!

As the boys would say

and we do

on the porch

our shirts flipping in the March breeze

and cigarettes blazing like flight paths to nowhere.

Cody cocks his eye and says

"Conundrum?

Does that mean Contradictory?"

No, I say

It just means mystery or question or puzzle.

Paradox or hypocrisy are the words you might be looking for.............................

Or perhaps dichotomy; but only so as the two things are

completely separate

and can never mingle on the dance floor.

What's an Oxymoron? Mike asks.

Cody answers

It's when you use two opposite words to describe something.

Like very little

or......

(he stalls)

Horrifically beautiful, I say.

and realize I'm the only man on the planet

who might turn such a phrase.

I hear my own voice in it

and realize

I should call a couple English professors I know

and let them know I've found it.

Finally.

A simile, I add,

compares two things..............

(Mike cuts me off)

Using the words like or as,

Bored with this shit.

While a metaphor, I press on,

takes an idea

or an object or

a thought

and transposes it as another.

Cody cocks an eye at me,

the expression

perfect skepticism.

"Her touch is fire, I say.

It's love made whole

the sun

in space

weeps

at the thought of another moon

another earth

or something in-between."

Cody nods his head.

The boys change the subject.

We talk about Patrick

ripping off luggage at the airport

while claiming to be at work.

We talk about Jeff who just got ten

years on a year old DUI case.

None of us are certain we've heard the whole story.

And shit goes back to normal

on Donna Drive.