Bruce Willard poem: Great Plains

                                                                                  ©2013 Basha Burwell

I could drive for days without fear
of outrunning these patchwork clouds,

bridge lines of cumulus
this way or that towards the horizon,

midway between one place
and another, standing up
to the administrations of wind.

I like a destination which pulls
true, deliberate,
but at great distance. Like

I like the slow, imperceptible
progress of knowing
but not knowing
how far I'll travel today,
where I'll find gas
for the next leg
or when.

"Great Plains" by Bruce Willard, from Holding Ground. © Four Way Books, 2013. Reprinted with permission.