Somewhere in Indiana, April 8, 2024

We shared two oranges in your car

under a partial solar eclipse

in a field off the interstate

somewhere in rural Indiana

with all the people

who didn't make it to Indianapolis.

We chased the path of totality

down the interstate from Chicago.

A few hours in we knew

we weren't going to make it there

and neither was everyone else

crawling through highway traffic.

We could've kept chasing totality,

creeping through Indiana at a snail's pace,

praying we made it in time.

or, we could pull off the interstate where we were,

park the car,

and watch what we could

through the skylight of your Nissan.

We laid in the grass

of the field we found ourselves in,

wind turbines in the distance

under a clear blue expanse,

us and the sliver of the sun

and two shiny oranges

and everyone who didn't make it

to Indy.

We didn't reach

the once-in-a-lifetime streak across the map

but we had our field off I-65

somewhere in Indiana

and we'd done all we could.

So we laid in the grass

under the eerie dim sunlight

and the great blue sky

was all ours.