A train leaves Chicago traveling south at 90 miles and hour
Arrives in Orlando at half-past eight
Catching me late for work
Hating the genius who planned this parade
I roll down my window and
Listen
To the clack, clack, clack, clack
Syncopated rhythm of the
Rails,
Clack, clack, clack
Runnin and a hummin and a
Box cars
BOOM
Box cars rollin
Clang, clang, clang, clang
One after the other . . .
You do the math
Half an hour late to start
Now I'm stuck here waiting on this train
That seems to be slow-ing down as. I. speak.
Dragging time . . .
Drag- ing time . . .
Dragging time along with it
Like that Salvadore Dali painting
Or a sticky pink strand
Stretched
From the hot black top
To the heel of my left high top
Slowing me down
Just enough to throw my whole day out of
al-
ign-
ment.
I sit. Here. Waiting.
And watch
The fwip, fwip, fwip, fwip
Poetry in motion of the
Cars,
Fwip, fwip, fwip
Visceral emotion of the
Tag art
Gang
BANG
art flowing
Bang, bang, bang, bang
One after the other . . .
Who teaches this . . . ?
Baggy pants Picassos
With their aerosol brushes
Blowin art ten feet high
On the side of a freight
Big balloon letters
And a fairly detailed Oscar the Grouch
Because nothing says "Bad to the bone"
Like a Sesame Street character
Then I think . . .
What if that guy, Cristo,
'Stead of spending all that money building bras for volcanoes
Or Wyland!
Were to paint up a train
So that no matter how the cars were switched up
You'd see fish . . .
Or whales swimming
But then that last car passes
The gate swings up
I'm on my way
And I think
Nah
Then you'd just have people
Blowing off work altogether
And driving around all day
Hoping
To get stuck at a crossing.
The Good Stuff:
Pelicans - always pelicans
Red shouldered hawk, flying, with 4-foot red rat snake
Fresh flowers
Valentines
Couples massage
A brand-new byline
Yielding for pedestrians
Songify
A President who sings on key
Dove chocolate
and blogging ... occasionally
