CoffeeShop Blues
GRAND CANYON
The abyss yawns with a sigh of boredom
So many years waiting for god on the edge of a canyon
The first time was in 1968
Carried by VW German engineering
Puttering across the USA healing
The fractured life of two children of divorce
Who sought solace in mystery
And smoked a joint and joked about hiking
To the bottom of the canyon
I was surprisingly practical and we made love
Then drove to San Francisco
Put flowers in our hair
I lost you somewhere between Marin County
And Austin Texas...we stopped by the canyon together one last time
But didn’t talk about going to the bottom
Instead I got educated and grew a suit
And spent thirty years reading about Phantom Ranch
In travel magazines handed out by stewardesses
So many faces I can’t remember
Silence in the wisp of wild oats
Bending with the wind
Children come children go
Whispering daddy when you coming home
In a cell phone at 35,000 feet
Suddenly I’m older than social security age
And thank god for one last chance
To correct a lifetime of mistakes
I boarded the plane with my last family
Finished the molly bloom chapter in Ulysses
For the fourth time in the same book I read
Tattered pages and notes in Joyce’s handwriting I’d copied
From his manuscript I found at the UT Humanities Research Center
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