74. HITCH–HIKE

I’ve got an endless highway
crawling on ahead of me
(and who is crawling?)
sometimes lost in fog
     in picture mists
     filled with dreams
sometimes vanishing
when there are no lights
blows right through you
wind of passing trucks
destination from your hands/leaves it in the mud
face—down on its message.
     Someone I know
     once told a joke
     but forgot to laugh:
     “If I want to go somewhere
     I’ll have to sell my car.”
     we laughed at him,
     but who knows, maybe
     they’re happier,
     when I crawl they ride
     when I ride they crawl
I’ve got an endless highway
crawling on ahead of me
I’ve got an endless highway
pushing from behind
I must keep going
can’t look back
I thought once
I was charting the universe
     setting guidelights
          on the farthest
               seas

I was floating in it all
and getting educated
to expand my mind
to contain it all//but
it contains me
     and I saw where it’s at
The past is vast
the present is
a passing moment
the future ain’t at all
I’m stuck somewhere
bouncing between the
     chewing wheels
     of time’s nonsense train
somewhere between the wheels of
present and the future,
the wheels of now
     and a lot of
     empty dreams
           until I sigh
               and lie
     down and die
under the wheels as
present becomes
future.