Desert Visions

[fromcancertocapricorn]

Desert Visions

The sagebrush shakes when wind
shaded with dust
and thin like diner coffee
sweeps over
the asphalt of the desert highway. This image is incredibly clear, particularly the "thin like diner coffee" portion.

I lean on my pack in the shade
of buttressed sage. The sky is bright blue
and the sand conforms to my body like
a worn-out motel bed. I hear the snap Yet again another clear image. However, I would argue that "bright blue" is a little unoriginal for the inventive way this poem is attempting to describe one's surroundings.
of grasshopper wings become like the hum

of bright signs that light city streets in colors; Either this should be a colon, or the sentence is incorrect, as there is a fragment after the semicolon.
of vermillion and lime as scents of curry
and rice rise in wafts to the window
of Sal Paradise. At the sill Honestly, as much as I love Kerouac, and as fitting as the reference is, I wonder if it comes off too trite. On the Road has become such a landmark piece for new-age "hipsters" that I sadly wonder if this sentence would be more meaningful without the reference to Sal Paradise.
he sucks LA up in one breath

and basks in the cobalt glow. I breathe too,
shut the book, listen to the simmer
of the desert. I hear a faint rumble –
a diesel engine. Rising from meditation,
I shoulder my pack and stand by the road. I like this ending. It contains more kind of On the Road esque ideas: not being able to stay in one place, etc.



Disclaimer: Sal Paradise is a character in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road and as such is solely the property of Jack Kerouac's estate. In my poem, I am not seeking to utilize this property in any other way than to explain what is happening in the scene of the poem.