LINE OF PAINT

There was a time we gave up living 

 just to live...

We would land in places 

No morning was alike, 

or sunset the same pastel.

Only a palette,

a cosmic palette hoarding shades

 of never-before-seen colors.

It felt like a perfect dream, 

but a dream it wasn't.

It was a lucid reality,

interrupted 

by the occasional 

crank of a wrench 

by a man named mechanic.

Out there on the road, 

no days blend together.

Each day is its own

line of paint.

MARS.

Bonneville Salt Flats,

30,000 acres of Mars near the Border.

Cherries & berries 

twirl across our rear view mirror

Kelsey shakes her head and sighs 

at yet another red handed window visit.

I grab the sheriff's wrist

in hopes he won't reach for the lead foot warrant 

out for my arrest.

dishonest compliments stumble from my mouth,

followed by more lip sweat

&

 a tip of the hat

"carry on"

upon entering, 

I was assured a UFO would hit us dead smack

in the middle of both our brows

we sit silently,

our thoughts understood by one another

We crave flames to keep warm 

 but more-so to cast shadows on the land 
so we don't feel so alone.

NIGHT COMES QUICK

MORNING COMES QUAKE

The salt crust trembles beneath us 

shaking our eyes awake, 

to trace the trail of black smoke 

that exits the rockets above us. 

KUM & GO.

SHELL, 

BP,

ON STAR, 

EXXON,

KWIK TRIP, 

MOBIL,

SINCLAIR,

TEXACO,

PILOT,

LOVES,

KUM & GO...

I've pissed in about every one of em, 

stocked up, 

emptied out,

thrown down washington's, lincoln's, but mostly tubmans between long drawn out mile markers. 

"to this day my hat still goes off to the man who got away with Kum & Go..."

Testing my luck with $2 scratch offs & clepto-esque mannerisms for  cured meat & Pay Days , NO shame because NO bank but Baby Face would be proud. 

There's something about the fluorescent lights, 

stench of gasoline, n' gum n oil stained concrete that makes my insides feel good, or maybe i'm just momentarily high off the free fumes.

could be the shit gas station coffee,

but probably not.

THE DESERT.

THE DESERT.
"A Palette of Color"

It looks like God
placed a few extra stars in the sky..
scattered a bunch of boulders,
then placed them carefully for the gazers.

...

He must have covered it in sharp things,

in spite of its beauty.

JOSHUA TREE, CA