On the Road, 1976

Kerry's challenge at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads is to write an On the Road poem. Well, I have taken some road trips in my time, but this one took the cake. I will look for the photo tomorrow!


Compact yellow Pinto wagon
stuffed to the gills:
on the roof rack,
an English pram 
for the ten-day-old baby,
whose bassinette was wedged 
behind the back seat.
On the back seat,
the two boys, on either side
of the St Bernard puppy
who, by the end
of the trip,
was so big he took up 
most of the seat.


Behind the wheel,
the Baby Daddy,
in over-sized leather Mexican hat,
raring to hit the road,
Mama riding shotgun,
all the way down
Highway One,
zooming past
breathtaking Oregon beaches 
she so longed to stop at,
but he was in a hurry
to get......where??
It was all right out the window,
they were passing it by.
Through Monarch butterflies
in Northern California,
driving the L.A. freeway 
at two in the morning,
looping back and
stopping over at 
San Luis Obispo,
where they lived 
out of their car for a time.


Mama spreading mustard on bread
on the hood of the car,
or rolling up deli meat
in tortillas for the boys,
dog was too big for 
their current situation
which was, basically,
penniless,
trying to find 
a direction
for where to go 
next.


Turned out
it was the road
back to Canada,
Mama looking wistfully
at all the neat little houses
they were passing
all the way up,
laundry on the line,
men washing cars
in the driveways.
"Normal life
for normal people,"
Mama said wistfully.
She had had
enough adventure;
she longed for Normal,
him looking over
at her in warning, 
her voice falling silent.


Back home, soon enough
he had moved on.
With her baby and older kids
she started life anew,
one more time,
from scratch,
and Normal
had never
felt so good.