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
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!
