Billboards Over Kansas / Missouri I Hope I Never See You Again
by Damian Rucci
BILLBOARDS OVER KANSAS
Billboards over Kansas fields
“Are you on your way to Heaven?”
we’re sweating in this car
six hours out from Missouri
waiting to break out into dry heat.
We’re not on our way to heaven
only to Salina, only to
grab a fist full of America
the bars are already filled
with men who have never tried
so we head for the highways
back home, our old friends
are tucking their children to sleep
are singing lullabies to future senators
but Emery has some couches downstairs
and tomorrow is a myth we’re unsure of
on Santa Fe Avenue, at the bookstore
we read poems for local drunks & skids
cop cheap blotter acid and tiptoe
through the headstone reveries to Kwik Shop
solace can only be found in these moments
but dawn will find us writing poems
in someone else's backyard
with the sleep still caught in our eyes
we pack the car and leave for Texas
never thinking to look back at home
MISSOURI I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN
Missouri
I hope I never see you again
or at least, that part of you
dirty and anxious outside the gas station
I hope I never see
your barefoot children
running through my dreams
pockets full of roses and crystal
I have followed them down
the country roads through the creeks
to vacant barns and broken light bulbs
to my neighbor’s kitchen table
I hope I never see the serpent
of smoke that slithers from
a tin-foil boat and finds its home
into the chasm where my soul
once lived but has gone on vacation
has packed up his suitcases
and tore off for Rolla airport
I may never see him again
I hope I never see your
red lit sinister streets, the shadows
panhandling outside of the supermarket
the damned rotting at the motel
from the rear view mirror
I watch my neighbor fight
an invisible foe, by the time
he calls for help we’re on
an interstate highway
and the only way to look
is ahead
Damian Rucci is the unofficial poet laureate of every 711 in New Jersey. His work has recently appeared on gas station bathroom stalls throughout the Midwest. He is probably banned from your local bar but you can find him on Twitter @damianrucci or at damian.rucci@gmail.com.
