Drive

He would make the drive

From LA to Houston

From Houston to New York

From New York to Minnesota

 

dessert rocks

Cacti

red clay dirt

Baked unbearably

Similar

By the unrelenting

Hands of the sun

And chiseled unmercifully

By sand-laden wind

 

The haul went unabated

Save for the occasional

Trip to a visitors bureau

a truck stop

To fill himself and a thermos up with coffee

 

Onward the drive went

In a Ford F150

Tape cassettes lined up

Like rows of musical chairs

for the trek:

Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, a little Elvis thrown in for good measure

The thermos

At the ready

 

Age 70–

Cigarette in hand

His life-long pal

His ultimate undoer–

Rolled death

That rolled with him

As the tires rolled

Eating up highway

Like a

Ravenous revenge

For the passing of time

Each puff a minute of life 

 

He would drive across oven-like deserts of Arizona and California

Prairies of Oklahoma and Texas

Under the double rainbows of New Mexico

Across the swamps of Louisiana

And the Mississippi deltas

Through the forests and frost of the Alleghenies

 

He would drive

Outrunning the 

cancer that insidiously worked

Its way to the center of his being

 

He would drive,

Because in the end

That is all we can do:

Life is about movement

Drive

Roll

Press forward

Rack up the miles

Anything less

Is a silent inertia

And a hastening of the inevitable

drive
1995 Ford F 150 Source: jalopnik.com

 


 

Charles Bukowski, the Los Angeles beat poet that captured the depravity of American urban life once said, “There is something about writing poetry that brings a man close to the cliff’s edge.” Newsweed is proud to stand in solidarity and offer you a chance to get close to the cliff’s edge with our first Power of Poetry Contest. Are you a budding bard, a versatile versifier, a rhyming regaler? Do you march to the beat of iambic pentameter, or flow like a river with free verse? If so, here’s your opportunity to put your mad poetic chops to the test. Enter our poetry contest for bragging rights and an opportunity to win some cash!