By Johnathan McCauley
I fell asleep
at the wheel
once, on my
way north to Pittsburgh.
Easily lulled
into dreams
by and of
the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Car horns blared from the
other lane
along with
sounds of metal
grinding against rock
my chest thrown
and yanked back
by the seat belt.
One hundred foot drop.
I plunged toward
the rocky
Whitestick Creek bed.
Yelling up nothing.
Clenching hands.
Gut on fire.
But I heard horns
and I woke up
with two wheels
over the
safety sleeper strips.
I jerked the car
and was tossed
by the tires
back into my lane.
Body burning
I checked my
rear view but
saw only the road.
Buffalo-born Wake Forest graduate Johnathan McCauley will matriculate from the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science in Spring 2017. Nature features heavily in his work and is also a constant source of inspiration for McCauley. His culminating project for his Master’s degree is a creative non-fiction novella set in southern tobacco country. He aspires to have “Scintilla” available in print by fall 2017.