Heading West

Heading West

I-10 in West Texas

Three-bladed windmills
top flat hills
shrugging their shoulders
and nudging eachother
into a lackadaisical daisy dance

Triceratops and T-Rex
regal and bright
in the rest-stop mensroom’s
full wall mosaic
reward us for getting this far

New Mexico

Sleeplessness perches on the headboard
like a big-eyed rabbit skull
on the lookout for toothy thoughts

Sand in my shirt
rolling over a strange mattress
where space aliens lay down to earth
over fifty years ago

Morning and the sun shines brightly
cool air
offering no resistance

California Mojave Desert—Hwy 40

Spread my arms on out forever
while stones thorns and spikes
bid me watch my step

Even as my eyes are drawn
out and around my skull
in panorama

Ringed by mountains’ dark promise of shade
somehow the sun can’t touch me


W. Joe Hoppe

Posted over on the Austin Community College Website