DOING LAUNDRY

I’ve made the ride to the mountains

more than once now,

loaded with stuff to sleep in,

eat, something to read, and this book

to write in. The place where I like

to get away is full of people

and noise in the middle of this October.

The ranger says it must be fall break.

Next door is a biker named Dave,

who’d laid it down more times

than was his due, says “Call me

‘Ole crippled b*****d’ like my friends do.”

He made it up on his other bike,

a seventy-three BMW, because his Harley

has a cracked ring. Makes his living

selling used parts and rider gear

from a flea market stall.

In the camper next door

is a retired Air Force sergeant and his wife.

He couldn’t stop showing me pictures of

jets and secret missions he’d been on,

and the time he flew to China with Nixon.

Across the way another old guy said he just

retired from the company that runs the

Grand Canyon. He lives in a Chevy van

with no windows and keeps his life savings

of junk and stuff in the little covered trailer

he hauls all over the country.

No one else wanted to talk, so I went

to the overlooks and waterfalls to find

some pictures to take. The short

attention spans of tourists and

families with crying kids meant I

didn’t have to wait overmuch

for them to get out of the way.

The Autumn colors are coming along,

still pastel and subdued under thin clouds.

It is too warm by twenty degrees

for this time of year, and

altogether better than I deserve.

I’ve got four days to cleanse the backs

of my eyeballs, and pull the rest of me

together before I hit the road,

and head home.

Copyright

Vol Lindsey

10/16/2008

Reviews

[Lorry]

Four days to cleanse the backs of your eyeballs! Now that is a lot to do in four days, to soak away all those things that cause everything from rubbing your eyes, to migraines that real life ™ and all the grief it brings that ails ya! 😊
Those mountains must look grand. Not just the views, but the characters you meet along the way that make you think you might just be vanilla after all, in amongst all the crazy flavours of life, that may be real but mostly exaggerated. But who wants to hear the PG version of an autobiography anyway?
No matter where you travel, it's only ever about half sights and the other half are the people and stories that cross our paths along the way.
If like me, best take a low up mattress. That nature sure gets rougher to take every year! 😊

[Vol]

Lorry,
Don't forget the mishaps! They are what make tale, sometimes, they are best part! I flew home yesterday, and in the Dallas airport I rode the tram with fifity other people and one beautiful woman... you've seen the type, tall thin, and ELEGANT! What is it about an obviously expensive haircut that lets you know it rides in Mercedes and Teslas, more than most of us. She is returning to Amarillo to see her son but has just moved to my hometown, Pensacola, Fl. with her relaxed and ready smile. I wish we'd had more time to talk

[Dave Brown]

you sound much like my son who more and more takes himself off further and further to do his cleansing

[Vol]

The road goes ever on and on...

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

I felt I’m truly there
Light a fire for me
Great write ✍️

[Vol]

Julie,
I want to think that the best poetry must say something to MAKE us stop and reconsider, address some great humanitarian issue with new insights... On the other hand the "meaning" is sometimes just a slice of life that puts us where the poet wants so we feel the feeling, see the STUFF and leave us to our own devices...
Vol

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

I’d love to see that pic you took that day

[Vol]

I have several but have no idea how to post them here...