Thursday, January 9, 2020

Planning My Road Trip

This will be epic!
I am planning my road trip.
(Who am I kidding? I am daydreaming.)
Really, I will have to be frugal
and pack light,

but for an extended adventure—
bring only essentials. Roll my bedroll
tightly, strap it
tightly to the luggage rack.

The saddlebags are filled
with necessities: road flares, inner tube,
a selective assortment of tools.

A duffel of clothes fit for all seasons
sits on the passenger pillion (rides bitch,
            if you will),
which would otherwise be empty.

My route has been mapped out,
with various alternatives tossed about,
like a maverick or nomad.

I will visit forty-eight states
(and at least one foreign country) alone.
Of course, many things,

like consumables, I can gather
            on the road;
beg, borrow, steal the rest. I will need
a pup tent and a Coleman stove

for the road-side campsites
where I will sleep to save money
on occasion, weather permitting.

It will be bare-bones and dirt-cheap.
(Yes, even in my dreams.)  Now,
if only I still had my hog. . . . It won’t
be the same in a van.

-

"Planning My Road Trip," along with "Inspiration," is published in Issue 93 (January 2020) of Burningword Literary Journal.


Eric

Thursday, January 2, 2020

There Is Fire

When the world around us
is exploding

with disbelief
and willful ignorance

while the truth
is on TV

for all the world to see,
smoke rises.

Smoke rises
from the classrooms—

our social media
experts.

Smoke rises
from sidewalk cafés

and picket lines,
engulfs a righteous nation.

Smoke lingers
until there is blood

in the streets.
            And, as we know,

where there is smoke. . . .



"There Is Fire," along with "I feel naked—," is included in the Winter issue (Vol. XIII, No. 1) of Third Wednesday Magazine, a quarterly journal of literary and visual arts. 

Eric