Dixie Valley Road

A green and white sign marks
the road north through Dixie Valley,
it starts out paved, reduces to gravel

then a dirt track along a section fence,
it regains gravel in the switchbacks
over the pass, than back to asphalt,

and sneaks into the back side of Winnemucca.
I'm not that road, I start out dirt,
end up dirt, it's the middle part,

the switchbacks, that are paved,
decorated with paint stripes and road signs,
it's the switchbacks that sneak into the back side.

Between the Lines

Brecker's Grocery gets their first
shopping cart and learns it doesn't roll
across the gravel parking lot
with carefree 'catalog' smiles.

Brecker paves the lot,
recruits Shorty George and Lucky Dan
to get special paint and put stripes
and arrows on the new asphalt.

Shorty and Lucky work out a traffic pattern,
paint a zebra's profusion of stripes,
straight for parking, curved for the traffic.
Lucky is painting the last 'enter' arrow
when the special paint runs out.

Shorty and Lucky still need to paint
the 'exit' arrows so they jump
into Shorty's truck and head for Princess Paints,
and Willie's Tavern.

Brecker's customers comply with the 'enter'
arrows, follow the curved lines,
park between the straight,
but they don't find 'exit' arrows,
and the parking lot is jammed
with a bewilderment of shoppers.

Slow Howard pulls down his hat
and sleeps, Small Annie finishes off
the ice cream before it melts, Jersey Belle
would never enter a place like Willie's,
she sends Uncle Jimmy down to get
Shorty George and Lucky Dan back in line.

Monument Ku

in the rain forest
sunlight drips –
a gnawed pinecone

~

on the kitchen table
an empty bottle –
the smell of morning fog

~

on a light pole
an empty nest –
winter winds

~

blackened bronze
on a pedestal –
three recruits