Wheels Roll
across miles of Colorado highway
Craig to Elk Springs to Dinosaur
through sagebrush & juniper & rangeland
the rolling freeze-thaw road paved
over Ute Indian trails & dinosaur bones
over white man buried promises
no one ahead or behind for miles
& miles rolling free
as the subconscious
the interstate an inner state
like the woman sitting alone
in a café in Craig
coffee in trembling hands
hair like threshed wheat
hollow eyes verging on tears
should have offered her an ear
talked of flight & freedom
in the broken lines
& the lightness of leavings
left behind
though leave your demons
in the dust & your angels
might stay back too
while the windshield carnage continues
the guts and wings of flights concluded
under clouds like gauze
over landscapes sutured by barbed wire
with ghostly mirage
blurred parallel lines
converging in the distance
while the Beatles’ Long & Winding Road
beams down from space through speakers
& you ponder where next
to go in this life
besides down the highway
& into the vanishing point
© 2021 Lew Forester
first published in Bristlecone Magazine
