36,500 Words.

The first time, I was alone. I was in Memphis
to work with kids in a private girls' school there,
I had a free Sunday, drove my rental car there.
It's easier alone, you can concentrate on the headphone spiel,
marvel at all that green shag carpet, the lost opportunities.

Later, we went as a family, drove down there together,
it was not the same. I liked seeing my wife,
who wrote her thesis at Harvard on Elvis Presley iconography,
and the way her eyes got wide, a dream fulfilled.
But the kids just whined. Actually, I don't blame them.