Every small town along Interstate 80
told a story as my car tires sang.
They reminded me I’d been
with them before, still nestled
in fields of corn as they witnessed
each season as it passed. I surfed the radio
and with a second ear, learned to listen
for secrets the land revealed.
Downstate, locals said were true
to life, away from glistening towers
of Chicago as it rose on shoulders
of a lake that thought it was an ocean.
A friend once told me about
a woman who never drove the Loop.
A mother in a diner with two toddlers
told them to use their indoor voices
such excitement found, their lives
lying ahead. Her father nodded
to the memories they stirred.
Geneseo, Mineral and Princeton—
the story played out everywhere.
This I knew. I checked the oil
tires and gas before I started.
my car
a vessel for life
as it passes
You know her
You feel she mingles in your reason in rhythm
Not with your possible pain of angina in arrhythmia
She is a calm serenity prayer
that knows your tear and that needs to run down on your smile lines
she is a kitchen cookie baking sheet
tracing paper cyan heed
never a plotter, never a san Juan never a San Francisco
But she is there too, with things on the verge of unsayable , she is there, too!
not to announce i am possible
but to possibly remind
even an ounce meant!
Rockefeller center and Rockford too
hit hard rock bottom with your pain
with all her pensive boon!
the 'MOTHER'S DAY' Poetry Contest entry
Do you recall?
Felix the cat,
Or Taxi and Kojak.
Fantasy Island and
Starsky and Hutch.
Monty Python and
The Brady bunch.
Saturday cartoons and
Mission impossible.
Batman and The Streets
of San Francisco.
Cling and Clang on H R
Puff n stuff.
All in the family and
Eight is enough.
The Osmonds and
Sonny and Cher.
Quickdraw Mc Draw and
Yogi Bear.
Josie and the Pussycats
And the jetsons.
Green acres and
Petticoat junction.
Mel's Diner and
Dick van dyke.
Columbo and
McMillan and wife.
Police woman and
Hawaii 5.0.
Soul Train and
the Cosby show.
Underdog and
Scooby doo.
Dragnet and
Kung fu.
Dr Marcus Welby
M.D.
A radio station named
WKRP.
Chips and
Quincy M.E.
Flip Wilson and
The Partridge family.
Sweat hogs on welcome
Back Kotter.
The Hulk, and the
Courtship of Eddie's father.
The facts of life and
Bob Newhart.
Chico and the man and
Get smart.
Nova and the Rockford
Files.
Dallas and love American
Style.
Turbo1904?
Dirty martinis and Cuban cigars
Fishnet stockings on hookers Playing my guitar.
Long days at the beach
Women without wedding rings
Making a list of my favorite things
Sex before Breakfast
Out running the cops
A judge that grants bail
Then getting bailed out.
Books by Sandra Cisneros
And Renaissance Art,
All of these things have a special place in my heart
But when the bars close
And I'm still sober
My dealer doesn't answer the phone
I think on these things
To keep from getting pissed off
And I express how I feel
in a poem.
Rock n' Roll music and classic cars
Rockford Files reruns
Deep cuts that leave scars
My probation officer not making me drop
Dive bars bad girls and musty bookshops
A day at Wrigley
Watching the Cubs
Cool Tucson mornings
And falling in love
The sound of my children's laughter
and the first day of spring
What an exceptional life I've had to be part of all these things.
But when I'm hungover
And I've got warrants
Or when my car breaks down
I think about all of my favorite things
And haul my butt out of town
JSB
We had Gumby
and Pokey,
And Sanford & Son.
We had Mark Spitz,
And Monty Python.
We had Lenny Bruce,
And Chips.
We had the Sex Pistols,
And A Ballroom Blitz.
We had Martin Scorsese,
And Happy Days.
We had the
Stepford Wives,
And Roe VS Wade.
We had What's up Doc,
and the Rockford files.
We had Gay Pride Parade,
and I can see for miles.
We had Women's Lib,
And Emergency.
We had One Flew Over
The Cuckoo's Nest,
And Mohamed Ali.
We had A Star is Born,
And little Chinatown.
We had Jesus
Christ Superstar,
And Foxy Brown.
We had the VCR
And Adam-12.
We had White Lightning,
and Josey Wales.
We had the Gay
Rights movement,
And Dragnet.
We had the Deer Hunter,
and Stanley Kubrick.
We had the Iran hostage crisis,
and a Six-million-dollar man.
We had Carnal Knowledge,
And The Stand.
We had the
Mississippi Queen
And Tony Orlando.
We had Abba singing
about Fernando.
We had Mick Jagger,
And John Wayne.
We had Rare Earth,
And Fire and Rain.
Turbo1904 ?
Four brothers brought up to revere God and love country.
From Rockford, Illinois, a close suburb of Chicago.
Frank, who grew up to be a Marine.
Ralph, who joined the Army and John, an Air Force man.
Their letters home can be found if you google
“The Abandoned History of Four”
Their only surviving relative a second cousin,
A woman who recognizes the value of their letters.
They express the horrors of WWII, the air raids, the submarines,
“The Japs and nasty Germans raiding without warning”
They take you through Pearl Harbor, a particularly nasty day.
You get a feel for the terror, and the aftermath of what they lived through.
None of the three brothers married or had children.
Frank was sent home with malaria and jaundice, and had mental problems.
Ralph and John were probably in similar states.
Optimistic, patriotic soldiers who lived their truth.
At the expense of their futures.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.