trees speeding by at seventy
miles per hour
around curves with signs
warning trucks to SLOW DOWN!
to thirty or you'll
tip over
and buckle up
this is the way I wanted
to see America
he says
yelling above the wind
flying in through his window
not the America of interstates
and thruways and turnpikes
and superhighways - four
lanes five lanes twelvelanes
on our way to hell
no! he says
this America where the
roads still stop at small
towns
where you still see people
as you drive
not just endless
cars and service areas
MacDonald's as far as
the eye can see
stick the car in neutral
as we drive down
a mountain
you would scoff to even
call a hill
then hit the brakes
as we reach
speek limit 35
whiz by his small town America
and slow down, man
she's cute
then it's gone and right
back up
fiftysixtyseventymilesperhour
and he leans back watching
farm fields and generations
roll on by
yeah, man, he says
this is beautiful

08/06/2002

Posted on 08/06/2002
Copyright © 2025 Gary Hoffmann