36,500 Words.

The freezing rain has rained and keeps raining right now
all over the cars and the hungry shiny blackened streets.

We drive home slow with stereo turned way down low,
not enough to be off, pretending everything is still normal.

One kid snoozing in the back seat, oblivious to all,
exhausted from holiday party revelry, hyperactive cousins and multiple desserts;

One kid watching nervously, mad that the New Year's Party
had to end at all, why do parties ever end;

Wife alongside me, telling me things. I pretend to listen.
I'm watching the roads, keeping us alive, I'm frozen already.