Road Trip

By Frankie Laufer

A modern-day cattle drive except with satellite radio.
Twenty-five mile per hour speed limit only a memory in rear view mirror.
Painted ponies keeping pace in a pasture like race cars on the final lap.
A cloud with many faces watches over us.
This is a good omen.
Exit two fifteen, Woodpecker Truck Stop offers food, diesel, and liquor.
He spots Darci working the counter and booth seating.
Her big smile complimented by the allure of her crooked teeth.
A sudden fantasy emerges.
It’s never too early in the morning to fall in love.
One-horse towns of Moro, Grass Valley, and Shaniko flash by like lost dreams.
Not a homemade pie sign to be found. 
Apparently though Jesus will do a stand-up routine on Sunday.
Miles pile up like used napkins littering the car.
Under new management and for sale signs are reminders of yesterdays-tired billboards.
Trucks and more trucks all under the influence of ill-intent going to a destination to be determined.
Entering Open Range country…illegal smiling cow sanctuary.
Chewing cuds and sad horizons meet at the spot marked X.
SPURS OUTPOST, Exit 224 beckons the road weary.
Stacie greets everyone with her wondrous gap tooth smile.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
“We have homemade blackberry pie,” she announces.
Another fantasy speaks up.
Falling in love never felt so right.

Frankie Laufer is an oil painter and writer living in Walla Walla, WA. His paintings have been shown in both the SF Bay area and Eastern Washington state. His poems have recently appeared in Piker Press , Sacred Chickens , and Synchronized Chaos. The expressive nature of both painting and writings creates the possibility of rediscovering lost or forgotten feelings and the possibility of new discovery.