Our Recklessness

Poetry
Written By Lisette Pietsch

When fear consumes me

As you drive your foot 

Down on the gas,

The fumes 

Burning my nose 

As the trees blur past me,

I wonder,

Do you see all that I am?

Or do you just want someone

To burn with you?

Your love is all-consuming,

Devouring my soul

As I watch the streetlights 

Surging across the side view mirror.

You drive us towards

Our destruction 

With a smile on your lips.

You never see

The panic

Flash in my eyes,

While you grip my thigh.

You never see how when I drive

My view is fixed

On the road ahead,

Instead of your face.

The car accelerates,

Leaping between lanes.

Your eyes find me,

And you don’t look away

As mine shut tight.

I don’t want to be here

When you kill us both.

*Inspired by "reckless driving" by Lizzy McAlpine

Lisette Pietsch

Lisette Pietsch (she/her) recently graduated from Western Washington University with a BA in creative writing. You’ll be able to recognize her by her Batman tattoo and sparkly purple cane. Her empathy and deep love for creating can be seen through her writing. Lisette’s writing often centers around trauma, identity, or tormented vigilantes who crave nothing but justice. She has always believed that every voice deserves to be heard and hopes that her writing will reach people whose stories have been left in the shadows.

Lisette is a staff writer for Beneath the Garden Wall and has published multiple book reviews in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

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