LOST

• Ten high bourbon
• Half empty bottle
• 120 degrees, no water
• Lost somewhere
• In the Arizona desert
• With thirst in our throats
•  
• She liked the cheap bourbon
• And fast girls like me
• A car that roamed
• Desert-scape
• To mountain, hey
• Blame it on route 666.
•  
• Lost at a gas station
• Globe, Arizona, mining town
• Where my grandfather worked.
• No gas, no money
• to get us on back home
• Miles and miles and
• Miles and miles
• from Tucson,
• how did we get here
• from there
•  
• Somewhere
• down the road
• around the bend
• through the red rock
• of the Salt River Canyon
• it's a down hill ride
• for a car out of gas
• Hell, it's a Hyundai!
•  
• All the way down
• Into the deep, deep belly
• Of Phoenix, where we
• Napped on my
• brother's bed
• Borrowed money from my folks
•  
• Lost and hot,
• refusing to let
• go of some kind of wild
• Jack Kerouack ride
• lost in the gaze
• of each other
• Lost in the
• abandonment
• of Insanity,
• For the sake of
• the Adventure
• And the Open Road.
•  
• by Johnna M. Gale
• copyright 2011

ON THE PLANE FROM
SAN FRANCISCO

• Rocks cut my tongue
• The words I grind
• With my teeth
• I swallow,
• The rocks
• Beat my throat
• Lay as lumps
• In my belly
• Slither and slide
• Through my intestines
• I shit them out
• They are still rocks
• Hard-solid
•  
• Only an eon or two
• Could beat these rocks
• Into pebbles
• Then sand,
• Then into smooth glass
• That becomes a mirror
• Then shattered broken glass
• That cuts my tongue
• The words I cannot speak
• But want to say to you.
•  
• by Johnna M. Gale
• copyright 2011