Music To Drive By

MUSIC TO DRIVE BY Manitoba. Dashboard music. The west ahead. At last the sun is gone - relax my eyes. Kinda half-dozing, eyelids of lead. Now slow love songs, with lots of sighs. At last DJ plays a quick-time wake-up piece - Jerry Lee with Chantilly Lace - And I reach for the the volume increase : Heavier foot on gas pedal picks up the pace. Kristofferson now with Bobby McGee : In the dusk I start to sing along, all smiles. Window down - cold air wakes me, The rig starts to consume the miles. Two hundred to go and alone on the road. Distant lights: some small town - Feel the wind push as I ease the heavy load - Maybe it’s Brandon, of only local renown. Now Manitoba - pool-table flat - disappears, And the prairie landscape has a slight rise: Grab the stick and shift down the gears, Saskatchewan surely ahead now lies. To Indian Head - Arlo Guthrie helps me make it: Listen to last verse of City of New Orleans: Pull in to the Voyageur Truckstop; hiss; brake it. Steak, eggs, hash browns, coffee: that’s what it means.