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Posts Tagged ‘road trip’

Irreplaceable 

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 29, 2026| 7 Comments »


 
Here, there is highway heading east and west. 
A great basin we have named The Great Basin
is rung by mountains and filled with low brush
and not much that man has touched except
this small roadside stand that describes how once
the Pony Express riders would use this rugged route,
changing horses every ten to fifteen miles. 
In the car, my daughter sleeps while my husband
and I stand in a merciless wind, reading how 
it took only two days after the first transcontinental
telegraph was sent for the Pony Express to shut down.
How much of what we rely on now will become obsolete
in a heartbeat? The postage stamp? The satellite?
When I return to the car, I squeeze the solid hand 
of my husband, trace the soft skin of my daughter’s arm,
grateful for gestures no technology can supplant.
Later, we tell inside jokes. Later, we ooh and ahh 
as lightning bisects the Great Basin. Nothing can 
replace this, I think, as my daughter tangles her hand
mindlessly in my hair and I lean in toward her touch.

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One Driving Across Nevada

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 25, 2026| 2 Comments »


 
 
not one thing growing
in the vast salt flats
but beside me my daughter sings
and I know, right here, heaven

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Backroads Anthem

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 18, 2020| 4 Comments »

Perhaps when I’ve lived long enough

that time and I have become good friends,

I will no longer curse at semi-trucks

going sloooow on the two-lane highway.

No, I will simply drive fourteen miles under the speed limit

and happily harmonize with the oversexed songs on pop radio

and notice how beautiful the swirls in the red rock cliffs.

I will not imagine fitting consequences

for drivers who pass in no-passing zones.

I will simply say thoughtful little prayers for them

to protect them on their way

as they blithely jeopardize the lives

of every other human on the road.  

And I’ll be so grateful for construction delays—

how they give me time to sit and reflect

about how happy I am to no longer be

the kind of woman who gets upset about traffic

and all the small-hearted dim wits

who don’t pull over when twelve cars are following them—

yes, it will be so nice to sit there beside the orange cones

with a smile on my face,

not ashamed at all that I used to be so bothered by it,

oh, remember that chapter?

I’ll be so amused I ever thought it was a problem

to creep an inch an minute for an hour and a half—

how lovely the slowness, the pace of patience,

my hands on the wheel, my foot humming above the brake.

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One Measure

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 10, 2019| 3 Comments »

 

 

cross-state road trip—

traveling with my daughter

three miles per song

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