Motorcycle Week 1997 

from a Crossroads Town


In the June glister of moonlight,

a combustive, guttural growl

calls me to the open window.


Like a harbinger on rims & rubber—

the gunmetal silhouette of a Harley.


Chrome-polished wheels

grip the curve of the intersection,

slow down, then push on

with a galloping rumble.


The first of the season.

Lonesome voyager

ahead of the procession.


But soon

gleaming metal machinery

& leather-clad riders

will thunder through


the yawning shadows

of these backwater towns

for at least the next ten days.


In the asphalt distance

the single red taillight

burns like a match,


then vanishes under

the blue belly of night.


I press a finger to the screen.

My ears chase

with a wending lust,

after the fading throttle-chop


that gets pulled

like rainwater

into the mountainside.


I taste the warm beer

that waits on the night table.

Pull down the shade.



Beverly Hennessy Summa’s poems have appeared in the New York Quarterly, Rust + MothONE ARTChiron Review, Book of Matches, Nerve Cowboy, Anti-Heroin Chic, Trailer Park Quarterly, Hobo Camp Review, Buddhist Poetry Review and elsewhere.  Beverly grew up in New York and New Hampshire and currently lives in the Lower Hudson Valley with her family. She can be found at beverlyhennessysumma.com.