Greyhound Poems

(Austin, Texas, 1955)

I stepped on to a bus
All the black faces in the back
All the white faces in the front
I’m neither white nor black!
Where do I sit?

I went to a Greyhound bus station
To go to a restroom
I see two signs
One...Read More

(saw a mistake with a rhyme and just now revised this)

I’m on a Greyhound bus – six hours till dawn
It’s late and dark. I think that I must be
the only passenger whose light is on.
I’ll keep that tiny light trained...Read More

Leaving at midnight on a Greyhound, I'm excited I'll be seeing my baby sister's family for two days and watch my nephew perform in CATS. In my small safari travel bag, these things I have packed:

Deoderant and my toothbrush (will...Read More

On youth's restless green puff
I road a greyhound bus-southbound
everything stuffed into one duffel bag
forty eight hours on highway x
I made it-
it was getting dark
so I settled for the first dive I could find,
one room with peeling pink walls
a large painting...Read More

The Greyhound reels over creaking axles.
Northern Kentucky puts on weight in summer,
a green mélange thickens,
yet inside our trundling tube, 
joints rattle,
gears burn through paunch and muscle.

We lurch over a crest down into a holler
An old Shaker Hymn booms across the...Read More

Taxied to the terminal. The fare paid,
vagrants begged for alms, some too drunk to care.
Shrunken faces, weather beaten, they played
a sad tune of which I was unaware.
Some had the means, even possessed the fare
to transport them to towns with better...Read More

Dog
My love
First greyhound
Retired rescue
A fun, goofy boy
Lovable and loyal
Adjusting to his new home
A high prey driven sight hound breed
Our cats are his friends, squirrels are not
He is loved and completes our family

4/22/19

(Not for contest, I wrote this because today is...Read More

We're All Going Somewhere
Not Just Walking
By: Tom Wright
9/11/98

Many,
move through life,
as if on a treadmill.
Expending energy
yet gaining little ground,
rushing nowhere.
Feeling like a football
that life has kicked the air from.
Deflated, and defeated, we cope.
Our only motivation and hope,
is that tiny light at...Read More

April 6th Back of the Bus

Many years ago
When I was a foolish young man
I took a greyhound bus trip
Just to see the country

I was trapped 
In the back of the bus
Where the young 
And restless souls

Gathered together
And drank illegally
And smoked...Read More

As Commander of the weird
Member of the phurst church of phun
An ordained member I am father and I am mother
Of the rubber chicken

Juggled between one George Bush and the other
Between camps, I break my foot, 
They threw me up, North
I...Read More

I owned a racehorse that was renowned,
as only fit to be knackery bound,
bit it’s not a disgrace,
for it won its first race -
although inside the gut of a greyhound....Read More

I didn't realize I hadn't posted my first poem I ever had published (albeit in a small newsletter). It was my first attempt at poetry after having been humiliated in high school (by an English teacher, no less) and I...Read More

I was gifted a little gem; her name is Polka Dots.
She's an English greyhound wench, stands as tall as a park-bench.
She's white, full of black spots, slender stem, and loves apricots.
Her previous owner use to race her, my gut would...Read More

Doggone it, that blasted pup irks me
He thinks he’s my Mom’s fav’rite pee wee
     He grabs harmful toys
     From rascally boys
Then chews them while gloating, bad beastie!

I’m coming for you, Mr. Hellhound
I’ll...Read More

The Yellow Ribbon
copyright 2015 by jon gutmacher

Going home
so long ago
a Greyhound bus rolling thru rolling hills
filled with passengers
their journey long
all to a distant place

We sat together
Jim and I
teenagers on a trip
out to meet grandparents long estranged
way out west
so far away
there,...Read More

(presumably still alive
predicated on rumored sightings dive
ving fast as blazing saddles, 
     her blitzkrieg, 
     nothing but a blurry beehive.)

Swifter than Usain
     (lightening) Bolt
Eden Liat
   ...Read More

MY PYRRHIC TRIP
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


I Had Planned this Trip for Years and Years
Not Enough Longevity, Was My Haunting Fears
But Sure Enough the Time Arrived to Go
Gonna Ramble, Gamble and Catch the Shows
Off to Vegas, I Can Hear the Casinos Calling
Wad...Read More

“The Big Blues and Baptismal Alice”



In the land of the dirty politician
Steely resolve was borne bidding
farewell to thinly veiled conceit and division
that particular brand of milk had long in the tooth turned sour
in her red-hot mamma kitchen

A racing Greyhound on...Read More

Fractured dreams and broken hearts
I watched her get onto the bus
I stood there in the rain
She was off to find her future
I'd not see her again

I watched them load her baggage
Like so many times before
This time I watched the bus...Read More

To get a phone call in the middle of the
Night is drear.
A man from the El Paso Texas Police 
Department is on the line.
It would appear
This is about my daughter. I am now wide 
Awake and filled with an unspeakable...Read More

Summertime with grandma and schools out
Greyhound bus riders we are on the way down south
Me and my sisters
Getting away from the city
Early mornings with grandpa 
He has us garden picking
Used to be grossed out
Hearing all those hissing sounds
City girl never...Read More

the Bus – Travels Through America’s Underbelly

I am a bus rider
That makes me unusual
For a white male 
From an upper middle class family

Our people are not bus riders
Though some are subway riders

Bus riders are other people
The poor, minorities, immigrants
People who...Read More

April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales

When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn 
I hitchhiked across the USA 

Started in Salt Lake City 
Where my greyhound bus pass 
Was stolen 

The station manager 
Could have...Read More

April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitchhiking Tales  part one 
published in Tiferet Journal 2018 Poem-a-Thon 

When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn 
I hitchhiked across the USA 

Started in Salt Lake City 
Where my greyhound...Read More

I'm not too lucky when I gamble
I lose more than I win
I would probably do better
If I tossed my money in a bin

Gambling is not just luck
It's timing and some skill
Some gamble for the fun of it
Some gamble for the...Read More