Eric Roy

The Loop (MMORPG)

On the last leg of the loop I drive before sundown
there is a back road through a tunnel of trees where
canopies reach across & the intertwining limbs cast
shadows like refracted sunlight in an asphalt pool.
Who wants to see anything lovely by themselves?
The way a timid moon enrages the blue emptiness
of late afternoon, how a length of fenceless pasture
turns my truck into one part in this moving diorama
or massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Round bales of hay down a field with horses fucking.
We’re all driving out here somewhere. It’s not how
the heart gets back up but how many times it falls.

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Eric Roy is the author of a chapbook, All Small Planes (Lily Poetry Review Press 2021), which received Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions nominations for its hybrid writing. His recent work can be found or is forthcoming at Apple Valley Review, Bennington Review, Fence, Harpur Palate, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Poetry South, and elsewhere. A former teacher, coach, and cook, he now sells junk and watches stars in Carmine, TX—population 244.