Who among us has not looked down that road, on postcards and atlases, and wondered what lie beyond the horizon. Beyond our vision. We are a curious people and yet one steeped in propriety and reason. We look but rarely touch, but Lord, how we love the looking and wondering!
I wonder if it goes anywhere
that highway that goes on forever.
the one lined with poles and wire
stretching into nothing
that highway that goes on forever.
the one lined with poles and wire
stretching into nothing
sometimes
it's in a desert,
brown blow on side to side
masking the passage.
the sun always setting,
carless and empty
careless and straight
sometimes it's in Nebraska
corn and grass and boredom.
I suppose someone lives along the lush,
swallowed up and corn fed,
a cycle of forever and John Deere tractors.
and I wonder
if ever they look beyond the work
and wonder if the sky goes on somewhere beyond tradition.
sometimes it's on ice and tundra,
a million miles of filthy black gold
to fill our evil gluttony.
polar bears and martin
starving at our intrusion,
wondering
if the land can outrun the road
and the fear of what's coming.
sometimes it's in a city
but lost in the maze and tangle
of going here and over there
lights of brilliant mess
and dirty sidewalks and dirty ways
but somewhere,
there's the last light,
where the streetlight flickers
and the hillside falls to rivers edge.
where bums and whores keep their options open,
right to wherever, left to what's known.
sometimes,
it's in our heart.
the day before us in requite and remorse
surrender and conquer
the engine of power and passion
with the underbelly of leaky valves.
but the dream stays alive
in straight far away
but somewhere,
there's a road away.
a road beyond the sand,
beyond the farm, beyond the city,
beyond our own entrapment
we so lovingly call us
believing the lie of our own design
we wear brown lenses to hide our fear
and keep to the cul de sac
and well lit way,
cuz it's familiar
but I wonder where those roads go
and if they outrun where I've been,
and if others have gone ahead and wait.
will they leave this earth and reward the chance?
will they teach me a better way?
or are they merely a mirror to a mirror
and no road at all
I wonder where they go
~Rick
