Forever Plaid and the Rainbow Moon

I drove all the way to Yellowstone

With someone I barely knew

We took your little silver car

It was new to you

You played Bon Iver on the radio

I had never heard of him before

There was a rainbow circle around the moon

Merlin was playing on the television at the hotel

Casting magic spells from his eyes

As we drank whisky in bed

I had too much and threw up all over the bed

You cleaned it up yourself

Because you didn’t want them to charge your credit card

For the damages

You lost your car key in the park

It just disappeared from your pocket

By the big geyser that shoots boiling water into the sky

We hitchhiked a ride on a tour bus

Got a free ride

Into the small town nearby

You paid for a room at a sleepy motel

It seemed we were the only occupants

Until we could order a new car key

From the closest locksmith

In the next town over

Called Butte (Butt)

It took a long time

Since the key had a chip inside

That must be programmed to match the car

They needed to speak the same language

We stayed there in limbo

Only a few days

But longer than we had planned for

Fox news and a quilting show

Were all that was on the television

You had your guitar

No, you called it a cuatro

It only had four strings

You wrote a silly song about

A Quilt in a Day (and I made it just for you)

We climbed to the top of the rusty old water tower

On the edge of town

And looked down

I thought I would fall

Got the adrenaline shakes and everything

As my hands gripped the ladder

On the way down

I told you not to smoke

You thought it made you look cool

American Spirit’s don’t count

They’re natural

There was a theatre attached to the motel

We snuck in

Poked around behind the curtain

Found costumes and instruments

You played the piano in the dark

Softly

We were hiding, after all

I didn't know you could play piano

It felt like the song

Was just for me

The motel owner invited us into the theatre

Later

To see a production of Forever Plaid

He didn't know

We had already been inside

It felt like a dream

A story of old men in plaid suits

Singing about their own death from the afterlife

The singing was off key

Most of the time

When the key finally came

We got a pizza and drove through the night

I had already missed my midterms

At the border

The agent couldn't understand

Why we were crossing at 2am

With a large all dressed pizza in our laps

Tired and starry eyed

We made it home

The moon had no rainbow

The radio was silent