on not living up to expectations
-------------------------------------------------------------
upon hearing the news i wanted out of the state so badly
a foul taste flared in my mouth and my stomach went south
despite the silvering-goldening play of the long-haired light
bathing the trancing drive going east on the prairie at five
a promising life had hugely derailed into simple travail
an exciting can-do will-do had irrevocably slipped away
thinking of the broken glass lining the reservation roads.
in the no-way-out treed little towns and the not-so-little
trading one future for another -- one dourly lacking room
the lofty the independent -- for the bound closer to home
a matrix replicated manyfold -- "kids make mistakes"
never ever to be that sporting page center-fold
trade-schooling and tooling in a distant dusty town
expectations now folded like a tourist-sold painted tipi
those (which one?) college quad dreams thoroughly ditched
familiar highways ahead instead of the mysterious cities
from now on -- a perennial lent.
wishing you were here for the hearing for the touching
you are only slightly
paradise-misspent.
i too am you and i am sad and so are we all -- signed, me.
