2023 Issue 5 Sept/Oct Focus - Mid-South Magazine

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