Driving

I recommend that story, because it's full of insanely good imagery, and somehow it solidifies into a real tangible point at the end. I think you've got something similar going on here, your language is evocative. But you need a point to this poem.

bear wrote:open wide and dreaming, like the blister paints
I used to paint my face. It's about the aesthetic;
the open maw of the highway and her feet;
curbed trees, and her teeth; tiny, prickly towns
that grow up like thorns

'Blister paints' was unspecific, I googled it, and found advice on how to cover up a latex based paint if it blisters on your wall, so I don't know what you were going for. Even if you stick with that image, the line about face painting seemed doubly odd. Consider the end of L1 and the beginning of L2.

I was also unclear as to whether the 'her' was a reference to the highway as one would reference a ship, or if it was a passenger of the car. I suspect, that is the latter, but I like the former better. For a short poem like this, there needn't be a companion.

I took over the wheel and we passed through
one of these still-born places. We found
traces of an old carnival, the graveyard marked
by rusty garbage cans and a busted up Ferris wheel
like the iris of your eye.

'Still-born places is a keeper, great find. I originally thought 'graveyard' referred to an actual graveyard for people, and why can't it? Just switch the two clauses in L3 to read;
... We found
the graveyard marked, traces of an old carnival
with rusty garbage...

Also, perhaps a Ferris wheel is too big, try for a Merry-go-round?

This poem needs (at least)another stanza though. You pass through an old town, and you seem to be looking for a way to end the poem right there, which bothers me. You don't do it, the poem is left in limbo begging for more. What's the point that you'd like to make.

I would suggest it not have anything to do with this town, let this town simply be a place to pass through, and stare through the windows of the car. You don't need to even edit this stanza too much, just build off of it.