poem of the day 07.01.14

seeing the karl hendricks trio, april 1996

it had to happen for me in west virginia

some joy, some thing

man, i had been down on love 

so many girls and so little time for them to want me

but i soon realized that barry had no clear clue where he was taking us

we took i-279 south a bit

then we drove aimlessly through western pennsylvania

two hours later we were on the outskirts of west virginia and ohio

barry jerked the car into the parking lot of a star america grocery store

he began frantically searching the front seat

what’re you doing, man? i asked.

oh, i think i might have a map in here somewhere, barry said

in that casual, happy way he had back then

we never found the map

we were lost in our own neck of the woods

we ended up down a seedy stretch of road in wellsburg

where i had all of these kid memories bum rushing me

from the year my family spent doing time in that dirt town

i thought about all of the fights that my folks had

the divorce talk, the other bullshit

my mood was getting as black

as the night sky

barry was getting more and more nervous and angry

at each wrong turn we took

for me, we couldn’t leave fast enough

then the rains came 

they were light at first and easy to navigate

but after a few moments it poured hard and unmanageable 

barry pulled into an exxon station and let the car idle 

we sat there listening to the pellets of rain smack off the hood of the car

not really saying a word

maybe we should build an ark, barry said

i pointed through my smeared window

to the warm glow of the exxon shop

i’m going in there , i said

if the next set of directions are shit then i say we bag this

we'll catch the trio sometime back in pittsburgh

but it had to happen for me in west virginia

the directions that i got were on the mark. 

we made bethany college in almost no time after that

 

even the rains had stopped for us

 

barry sailed the car through the blackened west virginia night

like a pro 

when we reached the college

the auditorium was already packed with kids

listening to the karl hendricks trio

 

it was as if karl had lifted his scene from pittsburgh

and transplanted it into the midst of a secluded west virginia college

he had them so enraptured

in the grip of madness and joy

breathless and soaked to the bone

i took it all in 

that thing

and i let those proustian nightmares

just slip away