I miss driving with you at
night, sometime past safe,
our lips still wet with
whiskey. In soft
blackness
with windows
down and jazz up, 
we rushed past
speed-limit signs
and thanked them
for the suggestion. 
I miss the hot
leather and
the sweat of your neck,
the fragrance of our
twenties, and the taste
of your name.
I miss our
egos, full
as moons,
that flicked off humility,
that knew we were
invincible, that were
certain of our success, 
that believed death
was distant as morning.

*Under the Influence first appeared in a chapbook titled Clotheslines

Mathieu Cailler’s poetry and prose have been widely featured in numerous national and international publications, including the Los Angeles Times and The Saturday Evening Post. A graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, he is the recipient of a Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction and a Shakespeare Award for Poetry. He is the author of Clotheslines (Red Bird Press), Shhh (ELJ Publications), and Loss Angeles (Short Story America Press), which has been honored by the Hollywood, New York, London, Paris, Best Book, and International Book Awards. His poetry collection, May I Have This Dance? (Black Magic Media), is slated for publication in December of 2017.