2023 Issue 5 Sept/Oct Focus - Mid-South Magazine
Focus Mid-South Magazine
Focus Mid-South Magazine
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
It’s eight in the morning, the beginning of February,<br />
and my bus is leaving the station. I’m nerve-wracked but<br />
excited about spending two weeks on the road. First:<br />
I head to Portland to see an author on his book tour.<br />
Afterwards, I will take another bus to my old college town,<br />
Missoula, in Montana. Then, finally, I will traverse another<br />
three days following the Mississippi back home. In my<br />
possession are: (1) a blank notebook that I intend to fill<br />
with poetry; (2) a book by the author I am going to see;<br />
and (3) a couple of granola bars for the road. My attention<br />
is firmly set on the world outside my window. I see a lone<br />
horse grazing by a power station. Let the journey begin.<br />
Just outside Little Rock, after we pass by a thousand<br />
tarpaper homes and abandoned farms, there’s a sign for<br />
the AR POWERBALL. Its slogan simply states: IMAGINE!<br />
YOU WINNING! I write this down as a motif in my poetry<br />
book since I can’t pass up a good metaphor. And it<br />
certainly applies to a few moments.<br />
As we coast into Texarkana, our first pit stop, the driver<br />
informs the passengers that we have thirty minutes. He<br />
adamantly admits that he will drive off without us. So, I<br />
make ample use of my time, by relieving myself and buying<br />
a few Gatorades. When I pop back onto the bus, the driver<br />
wastes no time shipping off.<br />
But, not two miles away from the depot, the bus breaks<br />
down. Most of us, including me, wail because our transfer<br />
waits in Dallas. I certainly can’t afford to miss it. I can<br />
not be stranded in Texarkana. One businessman angrily<br />
leaves the bus and says to just come back for him, he’s<br />
going to wait at the depot. Our driver tells him we won’t<br />
come back for him, but he just tells the driver he’s full<br />
of ‘bull shit’. But, the driver wasn’t lying since, not two<br />
minutes later, the bus leaves without the man. I watch<br />
him become a distant point<br />
in the winter void behind us.<br />
Imagine. You winning.<br />
After that dead-of-night<br />
departure from Dallas, our<br />
ship of sailors swings into<br />
Amarillo around two in<br />
the morning. Here’s this<br />
American scene: ponytail<br />
drug deals, businessmen<br />
sniffing their fingers;<br />
migrant mothers, holding<br />
their crying children like<br />
the Pietà; and, one of<br />
many characters on my<br />
journey, a broken beatnik<br />
searching the routes for<br />
answers.<br />
Clark Fork River in Missoula<br />
Road Out Towards Texarkana<br />
photos on this page<br />
by William Smythe<br />
Street Art in Missoula, MT<br />
by Unknown Artist<br />
<strong>Sept</strong>+<strong>Oct</strong> <strong>2023</strong> | focuslgbt.com | Go! 13