1

In place of wind speed I’ve

become an object of myself in order to carry you to completion

to break the skin of the road

2

I grapple with tying

the four corners of

the Earth around

your fear

‘leave your finger there until we’re done…

in a saying to myself,

a half conversation

what not to do

is doing itself,

3

END DETOUR

4

the pluralism of highways – open hand gesture: (finger-freaking-love-bitting-ass-licking-shit-stabbing-motherfucking-useless-man) – double strung-out lanes – order of convention – cineplexes – “son, u iz in Kentucky now” – the despair of middles – masterminded speedtrap – “how fast you think you were going?” – nothing faster than empathic turpitude – the jesus mall – p.t.a. in a carrows – on the road or off – lost destinations ample thoroughfare FOR $ALE – “you’re lucky, I never got to go nowhere” – flaggers | flagstaffers | flagfire | fallow … P A Y / T R E E / A U T I S M

5

we’ve created confession

around our conversation

6

Maybe its as simple as Willie Nelson and his lonesome dove where we last saw the ghost riders in the sky, yeah Johnny ‘n me riding the million mile gesture in styrofoam cups, the ash pot deluxe, we dramatics dream impossible directions, a troika of desire in me the devil and mr. Johnson always make three, or maybe its Dylan – 61 to see if there’s another 9 to make 10 heavens of 7 – jesus saves crumbles station-wagon bumpers, bright full stop in Redding: read the nothing sounds in between clouds to create the means of imagination: for the two selves that recognize each other, a mirror chrome gas tank smiling back – your eyes are always on the back of my head looking forward where I can see their gravity – the calcified church steeple barn door stands on patriotic terms, we’ll only have 20 minutes to go, the way of the dead on the side of the road, we’re mending the absence to fill the world.

VII

[I’ve seen myself pass me by :: a weary smoked glass specter]

sssssssaying something snake-like

bite through to the back of my own lip

chewing miles

burning sign posts in each drag

every mile for you

[from you :: toward you

as much you in the road ::as a road to you]

hung me from the crosses like Ape-ing rebels

NO ROME

we roam to find home

alone :: is a passenger for himself

6

as darkly drawn curtains

as around the hem of a star

as a bejeweled saturnine

as worshippers living in code

as where the west has no name

as spoken coldly at dawn

as midday sun as rational

as an approval as an ablution

as parts of speech called body

as language remains the chief

as objective art form at dusk

as the dreariest days are failing

7

Dear ______,

I’m calling this a pilgrimage in absentia—

sincerely,

I

[When in doubt please forward replies to true believers]

8

The road’s a postcard affair

we call our best intentions

mailed it yesterday.

9

Back at the rest stop

I tried to spot a bird

at rest in the tree atop

the hill back there

where I stopped and

saw the rest of this

playing out not quite

how I had intended