Going Greyhound-poem

A poem that appeared in PEARL way back in the 1997. My first published writing ever!
 

Going Greyhound

It's like a long blur that you try and sleep through

stopping in Oklahoma City for an hour layover

walking around seeing a vision of a woman

in a summer dress and sandals

walking out of a bank

and getting into a huge BMW

but mostly it's nightmares

of loud people from New York

stealing food from gas stations

and insulting everyone on the bus

or single women with crying children.

with everybody talking

and talking

and talking

and you're sitting there tired and greasy

without a iPod

trying to get to Phoenix

wishing everyone would just shut up

so you can sleep

and then somewhere after Amarillo

you get a Native American driver who doesn't take any shit

and everyone does shut up—

Then it seems OK.

Then all you need is a vanilla shake.

Pearl was great print-format literary journal that just closed shop. Their website here.