Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

Two Lane

Forth back
to fourth
we know our place.

New couples
drive down
holding hands.

Drive back
more baggage
in back.

Drivers pray
stay awake
not brake in fear.

What dares
love to
turn now?

Final destiny
another day
one more final.

No caffeine
no music
no back.

Unloved
china doll
eyes shut

goes back
on shelf
accrues cost.

Gears spin
oil self
gone goes.

Chad Parenteau hosts Boston’s long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His latest collection is The Collapsed Bookshelf. His poetry has appeared in journals such as Résonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The New Verse News, dadakuku, Nixes Mate Review and anthologies such as French Connections and Reimagine America. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx