I’m sitting in the passenger

Staring out the window

Watching a blur of nature and

Construction on the highway

The music pauses

I cast my eye, and

Prick my ear, in case

There are things I need to hear

“You know Kyle, I’ve known you for a long time… I didn’t know you when you were a kid, but I think I can imagine what you were like” 

I squint my eyes,

Making eye contact with 

Eyes that are busy with the road

“When I met you, you were angry, fifteen and fighting for a cause you couldn’t even name. Straining best you could against a system that was stacked in your favor anyways”

I’ll stay silent, because

I’m hoping that he’ll

Get to the point

“I could tell you hated the structure, anything that constrained you. I could assume it was hormones but I’m pretty sure that you just wanted to be a contrarian for the sake of it”

I watch his knuckles whiten

On the steering wheel

A terse moment of quiet

As we take an exit

“I don’t know what caused it, but now… now you’re much different. I don’t even think I could explain it but it seems like finally came into your own as a leader, as a person”

“Thank you..?

I couldn’t tell you if I've changed,

I know that I used

To hate the structure

Because I thought that it was

Stifling, Suffocating, Arbitrary

To go through all this procedure

To get one thing done”

And it’s clear you aren’t even paying attention

Because I was never told these things

I assume that people chalk it up to life

That a kid finally grows up

Everybody has noticed, that
I have changed, matured, aged

But nobody has had the balls to say it

It’d be helpful to be assured

I hope i’m not deluded

To think that I am different

Than I was two years ago

I’ll stare out the window of a silent car

Watching a blur of vine-choked guardrails

I wish someone would try to have

A conversation with the passenger