Highways & Horizons

The scene is as simple
and American as any I can
think of, a dark bar
the windows shaded and yellow
a street lamp outside
surrounded by mosquitoes
and maybe a slight s
summer breeze
a lonely motor
rumbles diesel in the distance

on the jukebox
there are sad honkeytonk
songs playing
and men drink whiskey
chased by beer
and flirt
with horrible women
with pock marked faces
and crooked yellowing teeth

the day was all highway
and horizon
a mode of life
foreign to most
but more alive
in their imaginations
than the reality
they exist under.

An umbrella
of life, the cold
hard ground
wet grass under
toes, children laughing
in dark bedrooms
refusing to go to sleep
and a stack of

novels in the corner
of the room, some made
young man desperate
to write.


~ Craig A. Platt
Sunday October 10, 2010, 9:17 PM