Friday, May 20, 2011

used tires

these blank pages are running out,
and i’m a little less than
worried. for more

dollars than exist to spare,
new tires are put on a car
that refuses to die when all hope

in its mechanical ability
was lost eight-hundred miles
ago, black cylindrical rubber

tread, now and again and for
one-more-maybe-last time able to pass
the penny test, refusing

in apparent weighty and eager
stubbornness to reveal president
lincoln’s copper hair line -

walk into a coffee
shop to escape this present
fortune with pen and pad,

the full coffee aroma engulfing,
blasting the face
though routinely passed by

like road side foliage
from here to there,
x-hundred miles

to step out stiff
with clumsy feet and back seat
full of loud and shiny food wrappers –

recognizing a high school teacher
and a chalky crush
in a dusty green chair

with the same nose and hair,
and a new divorce, and think
she remembers me too,

and wonder if she’s impressed
with me now, carrying
books, wearing beard, bearing

fleeting blank pages, perhaps
intrigued to see me on two
newer wheels instead

of four older ones, and this page
in this tiny backpack hauling
tiny words about tiny

things the rest of the world
is too big to see. these blank
ages are running

out, and i’m a little more
than worried about everything
else swallowing the birds

and trees and things
preserved and things heaved
in dumps and holes and  

burned in mesmerizing flames
where even the rising smoke swells
in these skies as i

unravel down
miles
and miles.

No comments:

Post a Comment