Dawn Dupler

One Time in college, I got a ride from a guy named doug

dawn dupler

One Time in College,
I Got a Ride
from a Guy Named Doug

                                              —Labor Day Weekend, 1984

He showed up in an Allman Brothers tee
and a ’68 Mustang, a roommate of my roommate’s
boyfriend. We headed east and around Indy, I tuned
the radio to a scratchy voice in Kankakee preaching
the apocalypse, and we laughed at the idea of eating
cicadas and crickets. Doug said he’d rather die than down
a waxworm. Near Greenfield, we lost the station but found
a burger joint with greasy windows. The parking lot

smelled of onion rings. He gave an embarrassed grin
when the waitress asked him how long we’d been
together and I said, About three hours. Catsup spilled
on my jeans, reminding me of a cut I got opening a care
package from Mom. For midterms, she’d mailed beef jerky
and Valium tucked inside a Tylenol bottle. Years later,
my brother would tell me how it was a federal crime.
As Doug and I drove past soybean fields on our way

back to the interstate, we hit a sparrow with a thud
and he hit the brakes. We pulled over to find the bird
lodged in the grill, its leg broken and pointing down.
Doug pulled it out like a book wedged on a shelf
and laid it on a patch of dirt, the gentlest gesture I’d seen
a boy make. Once we got back on the highway, I tried
to find another doomsday station, but no luck—only static
and hog futures. I didn’t know we’d never ride together

after that semester, didn’t know he’d change schools
when his dad got sick. I had yet to know the end-of-days
wailing Mom could make until Dad died years later.
Somewhere in Ohio, with the sun behind us, we passed
a farmer shooing cows into a pen, arms outstretched,
driving them home. Although I know I couldn’t have,
I swear I heard the clang of iron when the man closed the gate.

Dawn Dupler’s poetry has been featured on the buses and trains of St. Louis’ MetroLink and in journals such as Moon City Review, Natural Bridge, Paper Nautilus and others. She has an MFA in Writing and teaches English at the St. Louis Community College after retiring from a career in engineering.