looking for ruts to follow

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  • Life

    looking for ruts to follow

    sun down
    gas down
    driving straight for the moon
    midnight red lights
    through a west Texas panhandle nowhere
    Texline
    making time
    barren road
    barren soul
    nothing here but me road kill
    and a small piece of New Mexico
    turning north
    to find Custer again
    that brilliant arrogant death wish son-of-a-bitchin’ soldier
    I don’t know what it is about him
    and me
    maybe it’s just getting there
    maybe it’s Sitting Bull Crazy Horse
    Dull Knife
    or Yellow Dog’s
    wife
    that drives me
    to find the sun again high and bright
    intersecting wagon wheel ruts
    footprints if you look hard enough
    cutting deep through limestone
    one hundred thousand times
    I continue north toward Custer
    stopping where they say Butch and Sundance did
    having a drink in some hole-in-the wall bar
    where they let you shoot at the bell
    when you buy a round for the bar
    i hit it once
    this time when I get there
    I’ll know why
    this time
    i’ll know where the bullet holes are
    backtracking America
    backtracking me
    looking for ruts to follow

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    Teardrops commented on looking for ruts to follow

    02-13-2011

    Your poetry makes me look at me as a kid and you know i was not to bad I hope you get published you are truly one of the best and most real poets i have read in years . Marie
    Reply to Comment

    sherlock139 commented on looking for ruts to follow

    01-31-2011

    Great way of expressing how we are all searching for who we truly are. Really like this.
    Reply to Comment

    StandingBear commented on looking for ruts to follow

    01-27-2011

    One heck of a great write! Route 66 is in your path, even if it carries a different Hwy number these days. Louis L'amour would've taken a break from writing his westerns to tune in on your poetry. StandingBear
    Reply to Comment

    train64

    01/27/2011

    Thanks for having me as a friend. I do appreciate the kind words. it is certainly an honor for you to think that Mr. L'amour would be interested.. I do enjoy his books..Take Care.... T64

    shallenemcgrath commented on looking for ruts to follow

    01-27-2011

    This is a great poem... it reminds me weirdly of some of Patty Smith's poetry. I was just talking with a friend about West TX -coming from NorCal I find it kind of scary. I'm afraid they will hang the death penalty on my for saying something wrong.
    Reply to Comment

    train64

    01/27/2011

    I take that as quite a compliment..Patti Smith..Thanks..yep they might hang ya...have to brush up on on your ya'll and podna...and of course the 'you betchas'...Battle of Little Big Horn..kinda a spiritual shrine for me for some reason..Been there 3 times..try to go up on my trips back to WY.. Thanks for reading and the kind words...T64

    Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

    Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.

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