Summer Bum Tour of the Country Pt. 1: Preliminary Planning

So I decided recently that I want to see more of America than just the Shenandoah Valley. Unless unforeseen difficulties arise, I will be on the road from 7/12- The planned route, as of writing this, is as follows:

• DC to Denver - $115
• Denver to Vancouver, WA - $170
• Vancouver to LA - $85
• LA to Austin - $125
• Austin to New Orleans - $75
• New Orleans to Atlanta - $25
• Atlanta to Richmond - $50

Travel expenses, including funds for taxi/Uber, amount to approximately $750. Adding in another $150 in cash and at least $500 in the bank, the whole trip should cost less than $1400. 

As for the aims of mounting such an excursion, I plan to write detailed notes about my travels during the long bus hours between stops. Who I met, where I ate/drank, what was I wearing- all the little details will be included. Maybe I could even work my notes into a full-sized novel when it's all over. Who knows?

Dial Tone

Music plays as I
hold
momentarily while waiting for a representative

It loops over and over
plucking out a never-ending refrain
as a robot whore tells me
"Momentarily..."

Ten minutes pass.
The drink in my hand drains
refills
"Momentarily..."

I get fed up with the computerized monstrosity.
"I get it, no one's available,"
I growl into the mic.

No response,
except,
"Momentarily..."

"Fuck this," I think aloud,
but before I can
hang up
I realize it's imperative I speak to them.

So I hang here in muzak-limbo,
momentarily...

To A Friend On Their Twenty-First

On this, the day of your birth,

there’s ample reason for cheer and mirth.

Twenty-one years passed, badaboom,

since you were expelled from a womb.

And now with us all gathered here,

here’s to you! Let’s drink some beer!

Two Ravens

Two ravens sit atop fence posts in a long, low-hilly field.
Exchanging harsh words, they argue for a little while
about bird-things of little consequence

Two ravens take flight, circling over two hats
worn by two heads, which in turn had bodies stuck under them.

Two grating squawks filled the air
as the two hats (and their heads, etc.) trudged away from one another.
About face to find the other had done the same

Two ravens land on warm-dead corpses,
their dispute now resolved.
Their souls set off on a metaphysical odyssey
Doomed to wander forever on some other plane
while the ravens clean up the skeletons.

Runaway

My dog ran away last summer
from a pair of dogcatchers.
They chased him down an alleyway,
and out into the streets.

Picking his way through the packed-tight asphalt
he made his escape.

My dog ran away last summer
and at night,
if I listen closely,
with some shamrock's luck
I hear him howl.

My dog ran away,
from fate,
from capture,
from an ever-close cage.

More Ruminations On A White Cat

A white feline appears
from behind a gravestone,

and saunters toward me unafraid.
Affectionately it rubs against my left foot.

It slinks and slithers
between my legs.

It follows
and mews.

lamenting mice lost,
and lecturing on birds found.

Diatribes it speaks to me,
professing it's love for attention.

I pluck it from the blacktop
into the safety of friendly arms.

A white feline purrs
as I scratch it's chin gingerly.

White Panther

The white panther pads

Alight against the grey of winter

Stalking through the cemetery

Walking there alongside me

The white panther slinks between

Sight and sound

The kind of pleas that come from cats

behind and ‘fore the stony hats

The white panther follows me aways

In fright he flees from bellowing cars

And into an alley he stealthily slips

A few parting words upon his lips

Half-Dozen of the Other

Six of one, half-dozen of the other;

The hours creep along,

the sharp edge of a century.

Left by the wayside, my ambitions,

for another time’s pick-up.

Table the motion.

Six of one, half-dozen of the other;

Days hobble like a herd of handicapped gazelle.

After how-are-yous

good-and-yous

we talk about the weather, and little else.