she had mixed Scotch and wine
and was going to be sick, crying already
with shame as he pulled off the road
and helped her bend down
the familiar stars overhead were mute
they would not speak tonight of infinities,
beginnings and ends, singularities, Einsteinian
ultimate whys and whens
mere dots of light
more silent than the void they burned in
no match for the sobs and retchings at his feet
and a dog barking somewhere
distant