Leaving Rainbow

(July 2022. I left my bus at a storage lot and hitchhiked into the Rainbow Gathering in Routt National Forest in northern Colorado. Rainbow was one of the most amazing events of my life. Afterwards, wearing the same outfit I’d worn every day, I hitchhiked out with the same women who brought me in. They left me in Craig, and from there I had to hitchhike an hour and a half down the road to Rifle, where the bus was. I had all day and not a care in the world, having hitchhiked cross-country just two weeks prior. However, the town of Craig had many people who were anti-Rainbow, since the annual hippie gathering tends to get a bad rap in the media.)

Leaving Rainbow

Hitchhiking out of Craig heading south
Half a baked potato in my one pocket
From the Lovin Ovens made of mud in the woods.

My shirt vibrant orange with Monet sunflowers
My flowy blue pants Zhuangzi’s blue butterfly dream
My boots beaten with tens of thousands of miles

I am the dirty hippie they warned you about
Stinking of sex under the stars last night
And a week’s worth of woodsy armpits reeking
And the living earth wriggling under my long fingernails
And if the drivers could see my dirty feet
Dirt-caked by days of dainty dryad tramping
Daily miles barefoot around soft meadows and trails
Then they would pull over even less than zero times.

An ugly old lady gave me the middle finger
Instead of the symbolically (but not materially) supportive thumb.
I laughed at her, visibly, and beamed her my wickedest smile.
It is just so funny to me that someone can be that small and mean.
I am unbothered— in fact I am highly entertained.
I am happy hitchhiking, happy singing and waiting
On the side of this southbound state road, or anywhere.
I am happier than that woman has been in her entire life.
I am freer than that woman has been in her entire life.
I have shared and sparked more smiles and waves today
Than she has ever experienced on any day in her life.
I hope whatever Netflix show she likes makes her life
Feel meaningful tonight. I am not worried about tonight.

I need nothing, not even a ride.
I just turned one down.
I could sleep here tonight if I wanted.
But I am sure I will be sleeping in my bed tonight
After a week of damp tenting.
I am an hour and a half from bed on a scenic straight shot,
I am the greatest hitchhiker on the continent,
And I have no doubt about my next ride.

It is joyous work,
To stand on this shoulder patch fishing for miracles.
My joy is waiting and waiting is my joy.