Saturday, July 3, 2010

Grain Elevators, Waiting

Grain Elevator in Nekoma, Kansas

Roger sat at the kitchen table this morning, bolts and nuts of all sizes spread out before him. He's trying to get more metal into his diet. Har, har. No actually, he was searching for a bolt so he could fix the hinge on my sunroof. And fix it he did. The roof stayed tightly shut even after driving 300 miles out to western Kansas, on a windy day.

It was a good drive. We were shepherded across the plains by a big gang of fat clouds that kept the sun at bay. We took the dam road, and stopped at the Sports Haven near Cedar Bluff to get cold drinks. Someone was parked at the pump, gassing up their boat. Ah, summer. West of Brownell, we saw someone out in a combine, cutting wheat. But Mom says that harvest around Ness is over.

When we got to Mom's, I was hot and tired from the drive. So I was cheered to find a bottle of Ad Astra Ale that Marc had left behind, waiting for me in the fridge. Brewed and bottled by the Free State Brewery in Lawrence. It hit the spot. I unpacked a little paperback of Haikus by Jack Kerouac. I needed some relaxing words to rest my eyes on, and now seemed the perfect time to crack open this book.

I found the following haiku, which fit my drive today:

Grain elevators, waiting
for the road
to approach them

Here are a few more I like:

Glow worm sleeping
on this flower
Your light's on!

Quiet moonlit night
Neighbor boy studying
By telescope; ------"Ooo!"

Wooden house
raw gray---
pink light in the window

2 comments:

  1. you don't need a writer's group, simone. these words are just fine,,and i am just a little jealous, wishing i had been in your car, being "shepherded across the plains"....wonderful pictures painted with your words. and kerouc ain't bad either!!

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  2. Glad you made good use of that beer.

    So Kerouac wrote haiku's? Who knew?

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