Friday, March 27, 2009

Just a quick one

Just a quick entry today. Mainly I want to apologize for all the typos in yesterday's blog. Could you tell I was in a huge hurry? I've tried to clean it up. I'm not really as dumb as I sometimes sound.


At this writing, I'm not sure if I'll be going to Afton Station tomorrow. The weather predictions are pretty dire -- snow, ice, a plague of locusts..... well, snow and ice anyway. I'll wait 'til morning to decide.


Here's a little poem that might appeal to some of my older roadie readers. It certainly brings back memories for me.



No Matter How Far You Drive
by Louis Jenkins

I sat between Mamma and Daddy.


My sister sat on Mamma's lap.


Daddy drove. Fields, telephone poles....


I watched the sun go down.


"Never look straight at the sun,


it could ruin your eyes."


No matter how far you drive


you can't get to the sun.


I touched the pearly knob


of the gearshift lever


and felt the vibration in my fingers.


It made Daddy nervous.


"Never mess around with that.


You could ruin the car,


cause an accident."


It was dark, the sun gone to China.


Out there in the dark,


fourteen lights. I counted. Fourteen.


Rabbits ran in front of the car


from one black ditch to the other.


I didn't know where we were.


I could see the red light on the dashboard


and the light of Daddy's Lucky Strike


that broke into a million sparks behind us


when he threw it out the window.



"No Matter How Far You Drive" by Louis Jenkins, from All Tangled Up with the Living. © Nineties Press, 1991.

2 comments:

Beth said...

That sums up a childhood road trip pretty well, doesn't it?

Stay safe, Laurel. Sounds like some crummy weather coming your way!

Hugs, Beth

Trevor Hilton said...

This morning here in Oklahoma City there's a little bit of snow on the ground. There was some sleet last night.

That poem sums up childhood trips with my parents pretty well. My parents took care of all of the worrying, and I just enjoyed the trip.

Now I'm the parent.

Oh well.

Hopefully, my two children will have some good memories like that when they're older.