POETRY
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
Untitled
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