#491 - road trip

 

6.v.21

491

2.124

road trip

(boys’ own)

 

flew first

but lost the singing wings

went back

 

headed out of the city for who knows…

greatest hits of …

#8 for 2015

thought that was a bit nostalgic

but go with it

forget the years between

they’re only days piled after all

 

we drove on

roads were getting worse

spoke of the old adventures

somehow that made us younger

 

we came to a town

where time seemed to have stopped

sandy thongs, always Sunday there

the beach just shacks

 

petrol wasn’t cheap

but they had the Saturday papers

spread it all out on the carpet to read

you could mulch the whole garden

light a winter of fires

years since I’d seen so much news in print

and the classifieds

 

it was a village when we left

each one a different day of the week

 

and soon we were back on the track

 

the radio grew these buttons to push

gear shift sprung up in my hand

 

we got through a long unplayable era

then it was golden oldies

bit of a singalong too

and finger along on a paper map

 

centreline ran out, potholes

then the tar gave out altogether

corrugations too

 

time runs on wheels

and faster in tune, on rubber

pneumatic time

when the skeletal kind is built over

 

seemed to be going slower

shacks fewer and further between

 

trees went

and then they came back with a vengeance

 

then the radio died altogether

I mean it wasn’t there  

lots of things weren’t

but we had an old ukulele

 

people were trotting along

 

the road got rattlier

the wheels were high

breeze on the cheek

swung tail ahead

in a little while we were walking

 

a jaw harp

cigar box and string

then we were happy just clapping

but some of the words felt strangely to say

 

start walking

and time falls away

clothes too

 

we were like before first explorers

out of social studies

welcome and woe

we were kind of witnesses

 

couldn’t say much though

we’d forgotten the meanings of things

kept breath for a rhythm

 

we lived under bark

and so many creatures

we became geography

 

it was a different atmosphere then

in the end we were swimming

 

all for one

not really

it was egg ahead

and each for himself

that’s how we got here