Road Trip / Vanishing point
driving another junk car, leaving behind long, languorous shadows
traveling on gravel and on sand and on stone
over sagebrush and scores of unmarked graves
this is for fun or is this to atone
for sins still under consideration
We stop for trinkets in the sad ruins at casa grande
ask the waitress with cold, black-pool eyes
‘where’s the men’s room, she says, ‘when was the last time
you remember being happy’
she gets no fucking tip
from this place, from any place
the path of least resistance, is a turn to the south and cold warmth
on a graphical perspective, in a dimensional world
its where all the lines converge
color by numbers, fill in the blank
obituaries, horoscopes and crosswords
getting more lost, driving past unnamed mountains
without snow, and rivers without water
passing back and forth between the strange and the strangely familiar
footprints in the sand, assert, then disappear
who works the strings when bodies
with apparent motion, angst and vigor
appear and dance and jerk, then pass
a hole in the center where the jelly-soul used to be
I don’t know the moment when
the dust of our two spirits slipped
like light through haze into the space
where our bodies drift and hover
atoms, molecules, strong and weak forces
things with and without labels
mixed for a time, entwined, impressed
entangled and then fell away
how much water can you drink
from an oasis that’s ceased to trickle
my stern glaze, your indifference
the crest of a tide is fickle
maybe we will get it together
drift westward with the sun
slowly fading, extinguished by the blue to the west,
or north to the wind and to absence
romantic western narratives that will never happen
games the mind plays on itself
to occupy in void and absence, then into dust
shall pass, the wind will do what the wind chooses
it’s a little like a casual magic
idle amusement for beats and for slackers
an illusion without the pot-smoke and heavy mirrors
what transpires when destinies meet and merge
melt into the horizon, converge and disappear
the path of least resistance is a fall to the south and to the warmth
don’t wait, accelerate, drive on past the vanishing point
another milestone in an empty book of snaps
manufacture reason, method or motive
restless bodies become bodies lost in motion
once the momentum to leave is found
why would we ever want to stop
disappearing