my love of america extends to the appalachian mountains,
green, green, green on all sides and rising in the distance,
clouds sinking low and cooling you off in the summer sun.
it's on the california coast, at that spot where i found two
smooth rocks and soaked my jeans and had to wear them
in sixty degree weather.
to those mountain people who fed my work team even if
we packed our lunch every day that week.
in the badlands where i got all dusty, and at old faithful where
a whiteboard gave us that old geyser's schedule, and in idaho
where i stood with my feet on either side of the continental
divide.
and in the grand canyon where i stood three feet from the edge
under the blistering sun, and wondered where the glass bridge is.
my love is on i-20 through texas, past those oil rigs and the
smell is still stuck in my nose even three years later.
it's on the outer banks where i found a live sand dollar, which
i lost as soon as i found it. maybe it found its way home.
i love the neon lights; highway rest stops; turn offs in national
parks; rock formations that cover half the sky, driving through
switchbacks; blue raspberry icees at midnight; staring out the
car window when it's just your car on a lonely road at midnight.
america is beautiful when you forget it's america.
i love my country i love my country i love my country but i won't root for them in the olympics, i won't stand up every morning and recite our pledge of allegiance even if my homeroom teacher yells at me. i didn't know the words of the national anthem until i was twelve and i can't remember them four years later.
YOU ARE READING
alimento mori
Acakn. the insomnia-borne jolt of awareness that you will die. write it down before it's gone and let everyone see it because you exist, you exist, that sylvia plath quote running through your head, tattoo it on your veins, remind yourself you are here...
