80 all the way

(August 2023. Assembled from notes taken while Asher and I drove the red bus from New York to San Francisco on I-80 all the way across the country. The first line is more important on its own than the whole rest of the poem put together, in my opinion.)

80 all the way

the self is the limit of representation

reduce the dimensions of this country to the derivative
of a single line, a four dimensional map of stories
to be shared on a single trip
in a single passenger seat, one man

to sew this land back together by hand
is the work of poetry, a line of stone
to keep the contract of our ancestors

3000 miles from new york to san francisco
the great central cities of two centuries
farther apart than lisbon to moscow
one country, a wide continent
unbreakably united by a belt of concrete
scar tissue

to rectify every mistake of this nation will take making
many more mistakes

i refuse circumstances
though i accept them, i will not remain
the shape of them

to unlearn everything this body learned too well
is the work of a lifetime