Nebraska - Gary Horvitz

[Larry Robinson]

Nebraska
 
rolling across the state of Nebraska
through endless corn
field upon field
uniformly precise row upon row
the hypnotic sameness suggesting
that perhaps there really is no past and
no future
 
that we exist in an amazing maze of maize
becoming instead a state of mind
a moving stillness
a meditation on the equality of all things
an expansive eternal monochrome of
all colors and motions
merging into one 
 
cornfields as far as the eye can see
a blissful infinite evenness
this road an accident interrupting the
pervasive sameness of cornfield
even Kornfield Jack could not imagine
the bliss of this unceasing
uniformity
 
now passing  a gas station café
there by the side of the road I wonder
was it there yesterday
will it be there tomorrow
was it ever there
 
the customers populating its inner rooms
drink the same cup of coffee every hour
grip the cup with a steady calloused hand
squint  a curiously amicable gaze
their faces wrought and beaten
searching for a different wrinkle
new wrinkles in the time that
does not move
 
do they move
do they speak
do they dabble in time heading off on their way
into this endless tableau of non-arising
the illusion of motion passing beneath my wheels
the sound of rushing air suggesting
I am headed somewhere
 
no not really
the sun may find its way from ahead
to overhead to behind but
it is the same air
the same corn the same wrinkled faces
amused by the same cup of coffee
that never gets cold


	- Gary Horvitz