System Failure

System failure. The signal is not stable. The city is beyond the borders.
Headlights cut through the dusk - cold light. Stranger.

She drives through a blackout area
where every camera has not been configured for reception for a long time.
And the glass does not reflect traffic - only emptiness,
This city, like the Titanic, is plunging into darkness.

System failure. The radio is crackling.
Between stations there is only a wheezing beat.

And the navigator’s voice begs you not to “wait”
but the addresses disappeared somewhere halfway.
The lines of the roads glow like a thin scar,
and there is no one to tell what will happen to us there.

System failure. The floors are going dark.
The one who was here did not have time to report.

Her eyes in the mirror are like distant light,
but there is only panic in them - there is no one else nearby.
And your hands hold the steering wheel like it's a connection
with the last one that has not yet turned into dirt.

System failure. The night is closer than yesterday.
The city behind the wall will not live until morning.

And if she stops, the world will disappear with her,
That’s why it doesn’t slow down in the shadows of the night.
And every turn is like a choice without reason,
Speed is a way to avoid being left alone with the city.

System failure. High beam - zero.
In the reflection of the mirrors there is only road and pain.

And somewhere behind the bridge, where not a single signal is received,
she will understand: no one was waiting for her here.
But the engine roars like a memory of warmth -
which means she's still fixated
in this loop.