Looking::

On the road, the heat warps time
And the waves rise into me
Pullling me forth, to find
Nothing at all, but the insects buzz
And the afternoon breaks and time
Is shared by the cactus and sand
And nothing feels like a hundred years
Or a hundred hours, drifting, blowing
Shifting always, the landscape
Blurred by the myriad rays of the sun.

The insects click and the engine hums
The shadows of clouds break and depart
And nothing at all feels pretty good
When you're looking for nothing
On the open road….when you're looking
For time in the absence of clocks
And the moon and sun share an open sky
And it feels pretty good to not ask why.

The shadows run with the engine's hum
And the moon rises like dust from the wheels
And it feels pretty good to never feel
Just to stare at the land, where time just kneels
At the deserts feet, and water falls
Like prayers from an atheist's lips
Rare, but torrential and strange when its done
Time, like the rain, just falls and runs.

The moon sets full and the insects buzz
And the wind starts to rise and the sand
Just cools, and the stars are three dimensional
And time just sits, like the cactus and sand
With its myriad thorns and its dry expanse
The time just pierces, and blinds its eyes
The time just settles in different patterns
Differnent spaces, but always the same
Just colored, made heavy, with thunder and rain.

The night curves down and the engine hums
When you've reached the end of the open road
And time stands there, with a gun in hand
Like a western where nobody lives to tell
And the desert seems like an endless hell
But the morningbird calls and the heat starts to rise
And the wheels keep turning, but the roads disappeared
And the rain waits patient til sometime next year
Cactus and sand shift with insects and rain
There's nothing like nothing to heal time's pain.

-Kimberly N. Hunt
© 3-2-98