Leftovers from a road trip in the early ’90s…
Miles (Never Once Imagined)
And we drove for miles
And we saw those miles
Drifting out toward space
Layers of desert air beyond the mountains
I saw the miles quicken
Rising up like a beast from the steam of the engine
Outside Albuquerque
Again near Palm Springs
Jeep racing roofless and without doors
Away from Vegas with just eighteen dollars
Leftover pizza hut and half a cup of jingling quarters
There were miles more to go
And others to go them with
So we only stayed in LA for three hours
In the desert that night we both finally saw
The miles to the stars
Humbled to behold and freezing
In the imagined terror of a Mojave midnight
I never could have imagined all the miles still to come
Nor the people with whom I would travel them
Just then
Just there
Everything was right
We had mountains to climb and never once imagined
We would change our minds
©2003 James Brush
Posted by James in Photography, Travel, Poems
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