route 66

-The Daily Democrat, Sunday, April 22, 2007 

 

I drove through a small town with only dead-end streets

and a factory that swallowed the generations whole

and I thought this is where I can be happy

where God rises and sets and children have no safety nets

 

I moved in with a fortune teller who read cigarette smoke

she said my smoke rings were too big for this town

and the way my ashes fell—

well, she had never seen it before

so she knew not what to say

 

I met a man at the edge of the world in the east of end town

he said he liked the way my legs moved faster than my mind

and I smiled my simplest smile because I knew he would recognize no other

and then I whispered, the world is round

 

The next morning the fortune teller discovered flaming globes on the lawn

she sequestered my cigarettes and asked me to move out

no one will ever smoke Lucky Strikes here again, she said

I headed west because it was all I knew

soon I saw the blaze of the city lights

I predicted it would be a while before my spirits adjusted

but it didn't take long at all for my legs to catch up to speed