road poem

by horace p sternwall

illustrated by konrad kraus

spiders weave, and flies escape clowns wear noses and magicians capes everything is what it shall be whales laugh in the deep black sea between the oceans the highways wait for wanderers to take the bait big wheels whispering in the rain yellow moons over the shadowed plain call them alice, samantha or flo dames will come and dames will go but a pal is a brother, you know when the road calls, you got to go down the highway and over the hills we've got our booze, we've got our pills past the factories, past the old mills stoked to the gills, looking for thrills craving adventure, desperate for love laughed at by the gods above angels and devils can play their tricks we're on a one-way quest for kicks down darkened highways smoked with dreams when nothing is really what it seems because every darkened window and door hides more secrets than can ever be explored past silent houses where dogs sleep on chairs as cats watch over them with gracious airs cinderella brings stepmother her evening tea because that is the way it will always be waves of music suddenly blast out of the hidden fellaheen past a shack on the prairie, window alight solid in the windy night bus stop annies in the shadows of the docks clodhopper clems sit beneath the clocks the bus from des moines is an hour late but it will not affect their fate silent pawn shops, all night cafes hotels that have seen better days bums clutching bottles in lionish paws because the night obeys no laws railroad bulls who once had hearts now practice moloch's murderous arts empty boxcars with flown away souls can't get no more jelly roll moctezuma and railroad bill in a souvenir shop outside boot hill wait for john henry's promised return because the world will never learn cabeza de vaca with his thumb stuck out gives a final desperate shout as william mckinley driving a tramways bus leaves him behind in a cloud of dust the final kick just out of reach end up on a deserted beach the ocean is the last motel room its whispering surf the voice of doom