POETRY

Transformation

Northbound/winter/coffee

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Driving My Life Away

Transformation

winds

of equinox

fanning

fires

through

Montana

smoke

like giant

sun shades

screens

like through

amber

filters

and cools

white

summers

heat

becoming

many

orange

night

fires

glowing

on both

sides

of a

road

through

black

space

HWY 87, Roundup to Billings

September 1984

Northbound/winter/coffee

Truck diner:

ex-mobile home

EAT glimmering

on the roof, and

ENTER spray – painted

on the door.

Centered

in the sea

of frozen ruts, at the end

of a single lane road.

Ringed

with Christmas lights

of the rigs.

Inside

talk of black ice,

ground blizzard,

drifting snow.

Big Woman

drives for Safeway.

Black Man

in a ten gallon hat.

I’ve seen him

on Montana Avenue

- going back to Billings

- me too.

The circle

of 18-wheelers

revolved

around their shrine

like

a lighted constellation

and then moved

down the single lane road.

Glendo, Wyoming

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Yeah
those photos
like
a record collection.
Recollections
more precise
than anything
I’ve ever seen
or done
without a camera
in my hands.

Yeah
those photos
like rivets
in my
sliding past,
frozen moments of
looked-for
inspiration
that turn
on me.

Yeah
those photos
that time
shows,
the juxtaposition
of here
and then,
yin/yang tricks
of being/seeing.

Billings, Montana, 1984

Driving My Life Away

Down.
blue sky
blue hood
blue road
blue ring of crows
rising
from
road-kill

September 23, 1991

black
bending
bird cloud
against
pale fall
field
shoes full
of spilling
millet seeds
talking at
the CB
to Country Boy

Amherst, South Dakota
October 5, 1991

Ribbon of
dust
rising
from
dessert-floor
shimmering
stillness
that sounds
underwater

Dugway, Utah
October 15, 1991

running at
two grand
putting the
stars
in the sky
on
the Big Road,
driving
my life
away

POETRY

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