Gabe Guddingrhode island notebook, 2.26.03-3.2.03
[this directly transcribed from the notebook made while driving from
Bloomington IL to Providence RI and back to visit my partner Mairéad Byrne
and our two daughters, Marina and Clio, in late February, early March of
2003. All words were written at 70 miles per hour. Normal IL is 1097 miles
fr Providence RI. 1755 kilometers. It takes 17 hrs to drive at an ave speed
of 67 mph stopping 3 times for ten minutes a piece to gas and urinate my
pee. At 67 mph I can get between 43 and 46 mpg in my Toyota ECHO depending
upon temperature, wind, and altitude. I place a large format Cachet drawing
pad on the passenger's seat in which I write notes as I drive with a Sailor
Innovation I millimeter gel pen, black. The following is a log of where I
am, what I perceive, and what I'm thinking. The linebreaks are not a result
of my intention to break a line but are there because when I am driving at
70 mph and leaning over to write I write in dime-sized arthritic letters
and that's all I could get onto the 16 inch wide page. The stanza breaks
are often simply where I turned the page. The "M" referred to is sometimes
miles sometimes Mairéad.]
[anabasis]
6:54 AM Kreizer Ave. Car warming up
Grey cloudy. Very cold. Some snow
Coffee at Clinton Wareco Gas 7:01 AM
Set odo. South on Oakland Ave. Delayed
by train at X-ing near Gridley & Lakeland
It is heading north to Chicago
Urban graffiti on train. 7:05 -- train passes
7:05 red light Main & Oakland 7:06
South on Center. South on Main
7:10 AM JCT 74 East trip odo 3.1
regular odo 44640. Turn radio on.
First word I hear is "Regime. 2.26.03
I love Neil Diamond. His song
"Holly Holy is on. It is from 1969.
The year before the great war criminal
Henry Kissinger came to power. At 7:40
I am 36 M from Bloomington. The
cold origin of the Kaskasia River.
Today is the anniversary of Sylvia Plath,s passing.Sylvia died 40 yrs ago this cold
and terrible month. Often dizzy stones
of dark ice spin in jerks off trucks like stumps
of penguins, getting rounder as they go
until they shatter in dark
sparks of dirt. Snow in the stubble,
small billboards. I approach Kickapoo
State Park and the beaver-dammed dell
at Middle Fork of Vermilion River
8:10 AM. I cross through
charcoal trees at bridge
height and over Wabash River
94 M 8:30 AM. Now we set out
to find and milk the eagle, she in
her small breast her star-spangled
nipples, her nipples each a milky nickel
flashing garishly as a clear puddle.
Snow slightly deeper through Indiana
near Lebanon it,s very whiteEagle hunting is not for biddies. Something
either is stoutly done or meekly not
but eagle hunting is not for biddies.
Now, Nixon was an eagle hunter. I believe
the hidden eagle is in the national archives.
9:10 AM The snow in Indiana is very
white. 142 M I stop to pee & retrieve
sunglasses fr. trunk. Now NANCY REAGAN
was an eagle. She was an eagle-chickadee
w/ nickel-sized nipples that glinted on her
small bouncing boobies
fr. high above as she gyred in her
prophylaxis over Ronnie. 70 east 10:38 AM
CST. This eagle, Nancy Reagan, had
been beaten soundly & its feathers shorn
by special trauma scissors. Yet now,
years later, they had grown back
and her little nickel nipples did not
flash as much. Indianapolis 10:48 AM
"I,ve always been a nester. --Nancy
Reagan, My Turn (Random House, 1989)
"And I,d be down in the oval room
wrestling w/ a chair. Nancy ReaganWe hunted the eagle again b/c it was
trying to eat our meat bees, preying
upon our herd and hive of important
and beefy apians. Awful eagle. 203.7 M
sky almost featureless grey. Anthony Creek
"I was born on July 6th, which makes me
a cancer. Nancy Reagan. "Big Blue
River 212.7 M. Let us burn a
hospital just like an American President might
Let,s burn down that nursing home
just like an CEO would. Let,s get in the way
of the Antiques & charge a toll at the
entrance to modernity. Whitewater
River 229 M 11:31 AM EST. STOP
TO PEE 11:40-4. Yet all the lakeborn
timid eagles who had loved to build
their nests of wire and pipe and nails
(Welcome to Ohio blue arch 249 M 11:54 AM)
were all we had to hunt the Nancy
eagle with, w/ her chests of nickels,
her shining solid nipples. The
churchyard of Minerva is not where
she sprang from (for that place is
The Origin of Owls), no the Nancy
Reagan Eagle sprang from
the churchyard of manure wecouldn,t tell, at first, which of these two the eagle
had camped in. But as the eagle smelled of poop
we suspected the latter. The power
of her poopy youth--no longer smelled
on her, but the smell of the churchyard
of Manure was strong in her feathers,
strong enough to taint most of the weather
in a basswood copse. The Nancy Reagan Eagle
smelled of shining shit: Yes and in that
basswood copse a stampede of bees
that smelled of hamburger in their
meaty beefiness: they! had brought
the odorous eagle there frightening
the bees that slapped like manic dots
the trunks and trees, hizzing from
the eagle glinting in her poopy nipples. JCT
75 N & S 282 M 12:20 PM EST.
I feel tired at 12:30 PM. I feel
like a weakened fish driving his bowl
through the alien air. Over me, in Ohio
sky, the grey--featureless. It is if
I drive a fishbowl through the clear
piggy feet of the sky.There in that wood were many crows,
chickens, turkeys, many
fowl of the air and of the soil, fowls
of the trees and flowing water and there
I went in my fishbowl to surveil the
foul poaching of the poopy nickel eagle.
320 M I pass an "oversize load
cream fiberglass boat, a bulbous
beige shadow slipping over the
snow. The snow in the tan stubble
underscoring the crisp gray cuneiform
tree trunks. Splotches of brown bush
festoon like dun bunting the skirt
of the copse behind which scrim
flickered & pasted (270 N 340 M
1:13 PM) the over-plump shapes of
meat-puffy fowl--and these the
greedy eagle ignored, for she could
hear the crisp small slaps of the meat
bees manic w/ fear. 71 N 358 M
1:30 PM. Flies and speck gnats
toggle about these bees, but the
poop and nickel eagle sees theseas but a jiggling pepper, loose
and flecky clouds of spice food: this eagle
hunts now only the meat bees
(because they,re the size of pills,
and Nancy loved pills) 71 N for
some 20 min,s now. I seem to be
climbing out of some valley. Stop
to Gas & go Exit 151 71 N 390 M
1:57 PM. Get coffee. 2:07 PM back
on road. Sunny, bright, barking clear
on 71 N in the beautiful, easy breasts
of hills south of Cleveland.There is a hint of grease & ale here
in these distant foothills of the
Alleghanies. But there/ are no
meat bees here, though I see now
& again against the almost
American-flag blue of the sky the
melancholy smudge of a disconsolate
eagle hunting after the meatbees
over the College of Wooster: I see
Nancy Reagan, her small breasts
flashing, hosing
the very air w/ her sight, seeingwhat delicious bees her fearsome gaze/ might
wash out of the gusts. I pass
Galvanized steel grain silos here that shine
silver and apricot in the low sun to the south
behind me -- 429 M 2:40 PM
"Perpetual, mild reform was "true
conservatism according to Teddy
Roosevelt--because mild reform
allows capital to grow w/out
running the risk of revolution.
76 east 448 M 3 PM
The bourgeois society that Teddy
Roosevelt loved was "efficient, loving,
aesthetic, mother controlled, according
to Edmund Morris. Heavy traffic &
many potholes near Akron. Sun in
the right backseat window. Spindly
shadows of the roadside trees crinkle
across the highway--and some of them
leap up & whip silently across my
dark gray dash.500 M . 3:46 PM Bridge over wide
long frozen & snow white lake on
which distant shapes sate & walked,
ice fishing.
Meander Reservoir 508 M
There are 36,000 movie screens
nationwide, 26,000 are in corporate
cineplexes.
523 M OH/PA border?
Shenango River. Less snow here.
538 .7 M HIGH & LONG PILE OF POTATOES
IN MEDIAN, from a truck that crashed
and was towed away leaving the moraine
of its potato cargo, the cardboard
of the potato boxes
resembles half done origami
And here I am again at the O D
Anderson Interchange 543 M
89.7 FM NPR 4:26 PM
88.5 FM NPR 4:38 PM 553 M
89.1 FM 555 M. Scrubgrass Twnshp
Stone Church Rd Bridge 564 M
I blow through the apricot light
of Emlenton, PA 567 M 4:50 PMToday there is a "virtual march on
Washington
585 M Majestic bridge across
deep ravine cupping the large
Clarion River diapered in a
surface of snow. In fluorescent
manila sunset flickering through
leather trees & over white snow
I find an oldies station and
Van Morrison,s "Brown Eyed Girl
O How Fleeting are life,s perfect
moments: pleasure & insight
combine--and are gone. I flicker
through shadows
and sometimes see on the road
a deeper shadow nestled in the
widening shade. 596.2 M
96.3 FM -- oldies station
90.1 NPR 607 M
The Bush Adminstration leaves
Patriot Missiles to Iskander, Turkey.643 M I stop to eat--fish sandwich
6-6:10
104.7 NPR--high channel for NPR
643 M
6:10 PM Deep twilight. I deploy the
dash cigarette-lighter light
100% cloudcover suffused w/ a faint
tan-gray light can still see the page by the
ambient light & amn,t using cig-lighter
light. This is an Aluminum Al-Star
Lamy w/ I think Parker Quink
(black) and broad stub nib.The old Nancy Reagan eagle is still
circling high, but circling in a
way we cannot understand: her
gyre pattern is chaotic, the wind
buffles her skirt, she bangs around
the sky a storm tossed cannon
a rusty big-holed skirt-wearing
cannon w/ nickel nipplesand a beak of fury rimmed w/ reddest
lipstick: the lipstick of ire. And around
the great hole of her cannon fundament
are slim and flapping labia. Her labia
are thin as gong metal.
688 M playing tag w/ semi,s past
several miles in these PA mountains.
There now off the side of the road
as I approach Bucknell University
there now runs a little possum
which the eagle sees. I see the eagle
dive, its skirt snapping at the air,
the big cannon hole of its fundament
a great rusty zero--the possum,
teeth bared, dives under bush
and the eagle clangs into the pavement.
761 MI see those nuclear cooling
towers at Lime Ridge & Berwick, PA
Susquehanna River 764 M782 M 81 N 8:10 PM I had forgotten
that invasion for economic reasons
and the demonizing of a head of state
runs in the Bush family: GHWB did it
in Panama and Manuel Noriega
790-2 M pulled off to Gas at Mobil
in Nuangola PA & got lost briefly
on sideroad--no signs & just dark woods
801 STOP TO GAS in Wilkes Barre PA
8:30 PM must drive
2.5 m,s to station!
412.7 m 10.061 gallons
8:45 back on road
"Youth is a curable disease T. Roosevelt
826 M 84 east 9:07
"Great corporations exist only b/c they are
created and safeguarded by
our institutions. It is therefore our right & duty
to work in harmony w/ these institutions.
--T. Roosevelt"It is a horrible thing to realize
that we have a bully in the White House.
--A former aid to Benjamin Harrison
on Theodore Roosevelt
"Woe to thee, O Land, when thy King is a child.
--EcclesiastesMetamoras (PA or NY?) 875 M 9:50 PM
Welcome to New York 9:51 PM
876 MThe very act of walking had packed a
grease into our heels, joints, the grease had slipped
& sloughed down fr. the pores of our
bones. That is why Americans stopped walking in
the mid 1980s. The first ones to stop walking
were Southerners: White Male gun-bearing
Southerners, the fat ones, the religious
fat ones. 915 M crossing the Hudson
at 10:25 PMThe big prison is only a few miles into
New York. 922 M: To the left, on a dark hulk of
air, which I take to be a hill,
a distant colossal cross hangs
bulb-lit in the air. The eagle slammedinto the "Caution Deer X-ing sign
probably thinking that the black
half-meter diagonally leaping stag
was a thin hesitant jackalope.What is the history of Stenography?
Who invented stenography?
How does stenography work?947 M STOP TO PEE AT REST STOP 10:55 pm
11:03 back on roadLou Reed------ how much of me do you
want to own? were you an influence
on Rap? ZZ Top is Amazing.691 east 987 m 11:38 pm
Quinnipiac River 989 M The Doors
996 91 N
Mattabasset River 1001 M 11:51 pm
9 S 1002 11:52 PM
Alongside Mattabasset River 1007
stoplights speed limit 45The Great bruised First Lady eagle
rose up, collected her clanging crapulous cannon,
her nasty skirt, & her 2 spinning nickelsand sat down w/ a sob & A
small disconsolate heave of her
wings, her terrible pointed wings.1064 Welcome to Rhode Island
12:50 AM
89.9 FM eastern CT, Western RI NPR stationShe hits her head, sputtering. She
is dejected. Brutal luck. Hit
her head. Her eyes cross.Warwick RI 1089 M 1:13 AM
sad sad warwick. where 97 or so
were burned to death last week
Sad its malls. Sad its men.
Sad sad its weeping ma ma,s.The eagle shall go to Warwick
and cheer them. That is the
job of the First Lady eagle,s responsibility!View of Providence 1099 M 1:23 AM
1100 M Exit 20N Main & College, left. 1:25 AM
Long red at Thomas & Main
1103 m 1:30 AM Arrive[katabasis]
3.2.03 Sunday Providence Set trip odo
Cumberland Farms Gas Station (Hope &
Romchambeau)
7:40 AM EST. Gray wet oily shitty
looking day. It,s falling in small dots
as mist or slush. The spray
from the road is only green and oily.
An incomparably grey day. A head
Al Qaeda uncle caught today. Iraq
is destroying its Al Samoud Missiles.
7,000 N of St. Antonio. 8,000 in Houston
gather in Texas to support war.
Wonderful people, Texans. Odo 46541 30m south
of Providence. Rain smattering, wipers on.
Gray, green, white road strips, white
ditch snow, short brown rock cliffs
back the ditches. This is a Lamy
Al Star w/ broad stub.40 m CT Welcomes Me. Jewish War
Veterans Memorial Highway. I pass
A late model Ford van, blue, w/ "88
sticker, white male driver. Have
heard this # is meant to signify White
Supremacy. I lean over into my passenger
window and honk, push out my arm,
and give him the finger, moving
my finger, hand, and forearm up
and down ludely while mouthing "Fuck you,
Fuck you. 55 m 8:30 AM I sure hope that "88
is code for white supremacy. Khaled
Sheik Muhammed caught in Pakistan
Switzerland wins America,s cup, 1st
European nation to do so.9 N 73 m 8:47 AM Chester Bowles
Highway. Very wet. CT,s very wet,
white. 90.5 FM NPR. Much fog
ragging across the rocksalted
highway. M visibility. Brown
& green and greasy and gray. Flash
flood watch for this area.The Israeli Army is a terrorist organ.
Turkey,s parliament rejects
proposal to put US troops on its soil.
Good for them! 691 West 109 m
The chickadee did Kung Fu
Against the 7 Angels
Fog. The eagle arrested the chickadee.m visibility, light rain as I
approach Waterbury, CT 124 m
9:33 AM God!: St. Mary,s Hospital
looks gloriously red & warm in its
windbreaker of 19th Cent. brick--o babies inside,
stay warm! I miss Mairéad
am sad how I miss her and Clio,
and Marina
No reports today about the NSA
,s bugging the offices of UN
Security Council Ambassadors, offices
it was leaked to The Observer yesterday.
158 M Welcome to NY.
Heavy rain, I am hungry.
Clio lost her 2nd tooth in Delaware
on Hwy 95-S 2.26 around 5 PM
eating an apple, #1 lower left incisor
she lost the 1st lower incisor
on the rt side of her jaw in Illinois
on I think 1.23.
.
Fishkill NY (182 m) you are rainy
but not foggy. Same w/ you, Peekskill.
"Caution Fog on Bridge
REDUCE SPEEDas I approach
Hudson River 187 m 10:30 AM
Some ICE pilling on the Hudson. Seagull 2 o,clock
in windshield. Visibility 1 mile
Heavy rain now, 10:35 AM, am
hydroplaning 62 mph Fogs
At tops of hills. Soggy brown deer,
its body twisted as if turned by
a strong wind on rt. shoulder
car pulled rt & lt by streams of
water in road. w/ ethanol fuels
this car gets 10% fewer mpg. Yesterday
w/ 4 people & luggage in car, I got
44 mpg--using 87 lead & 100% gasoline
Foggy but very bright 202 Mat Wallkill Rier. A light suffusing
the fog, a light at once so apricot
& so cream-white that I
taste cupboard-warm apricots & cool milk.
I pass, in the gray but glowing brightness, a dayglo
orange semi tractor w/out a trailer.
It is brightly spewing a tearing & swirling
plume of oil-gray mist from its wheels.
Rain loud & heavy near Goshen NY
the clean snow here puffy with sog.I pass a 24, Penske hermit crab
towing a quaint green Citröen. Rifling up
& down the FM band trying to soak
up the last bit of New York, New
England news and progressivism before
I head into Propagandsylviania and
white male "Family pro-war stations.
And "Pennsylvania Welcomes [Me]
228 M 11:08 AM.237 M 11:17 AM tank gone
39.8 mpg
Promised Land Truckstop 255 m
11:30 Exit 26, PA, heavy fog
255 m
3,000 American soldiers left last week
for the Philippines. 102 yrs ago
Henry Cabot Lodge rose on the Senate
floor to report Atrocities committed
there by American soldiers comm,d by
A General Smith who told his men to torture
and kill Philippine guerillas, &
they did: disembowlings, beheadings,
castrations (then gagging the guerillas
w/ their own testicles.) I heard a report
at the AWP on Friday, relayed by
James Cervantes, that an American soldier
in the Gulf War had a photo album of
himself in the acts of
disemboweling & beheading young
Iraqi soldiers (one a young boy). Rain stopped 11:45
Some fog remains on hilltops380 N 275 M 11:50 AM.
81 S 281 M 11:56 AM
Teddy Roosevelt studied jujitsu
"You have slain uncounted thousands of the
people you have desired to benefit.
--Senator Hoar to Teddy Roosevelt
Can see cloudy sky 1st time since RI:
has been fog since then, am in Scranton PA
at noon, passing Scranton airport 12:05.
Some of these browns here in the ditch
near Scranton Are so wet and dark
they are Almost Blue.
Grasses hold these browns, & some rock
and bark (though I see some
birch trees too). FOG: NEAR
NUANGOLA. Visibility 1/10th M.
Now 100 feet! And KABOOM! the
hill slopes & out of milk we
whang--about 4 cars in my pack
into washing sunlight weakened
by very high clouds.315 M here 81 S rides precipitously
Above the tiny broad valley.
80 W 317 M
The old head of the eagle, like a gourd
too heavy for the wind, decided
that it wd keep its body there on
the road in the loose wind slung
by the whooshing fret of the trafficuntil she,d affixed the asphalt-nicked nickels
back upon her tender breast cones.
"My body and head struck that sign
so hard my nipples jumped ship off
the light frigates of my chest.
I do not like to see my nipples peregrined
among the loose gulls, my nipples cannot
swim!
expansive snow in the valley
to the south--much melted in its
height but not in acreage
365 m cross wide
Susquehanna 1:10 PM ESTLockhaven about 30 miles from
Susquehanna River warm today
30+
391 m 9.775g 1:30 PMIngram's Market
Loganton, PA 40 mpg
395 m outside Loganton, where
I see 2 horsebuggies--one going
uphill past Ingram,s Market gasstation
and one downhill--while my tank
was filling. The horse going uphill
was walking, the horse going
down was racking. The people,
I assume, were sitting.Now here in mid-afternoon near Bellefonte
80 skirts the south rim of a white valley
and, to the right, through picketing trees,
a mile off I spot a crisply white SUV
hurtling parallel me, at speed: a fleet
shadow. It is the government CIA my shadow
hater of poets administration God Bless the
Patriot Act and John Ashcroft, perfect
candidate for a cross-dressing uptight man
every generation needs
its J Edgar Hoover.2:05-2:19 Stop at McDonald,s for
Fish Sandwich & coffee I have 2
fish fillets.
Passing through the brown & white
Alleghanies, whizzing along many
cliffs, speckles of rain perch out of
the Air & dry on my windscreen.
Wind is gaining, buffeting my slight & efficient
Toyota God Bless the Japanese
I set the 3 vent dials on my dash
to the right titration in flow & temp
and wait for my coffee to cool
This Automobile is tight humming pod
under zooming crows, crackling
like an arrow past the tan &
blurry deer.
2:45 PM EST Passed by silver Stratus
w/ US Govt Plates, 2 passengers
driver wearing phone mouth mic
big man, baseball hat 75 mph457 M, passing through a rill of
runoff traversing hwy near bridge
car slows markedly & I hypothesize
the 40 mpg this morning due in
some part to the earlier rain & hydroplaning
465 M Highest Pt on 80 east of Miss.
3 pm EST.
Teddy Roosevelt was, yes, anti-trust
and pro-regulation. And based on
his concerns re the coal crisis in
his 1st term, I can,t help but think
he wd have found the current administration,s
deregulation and fiscal policies irresponsible.
This is now a Lamy Vista w/ broad italic.
Gorgeously composed farm--its bldg,s
hill, cattle, & bales--the snow
there--487 m, near Reynoldsville, PA
2 M,s before its exit--lying to the
right, the sky so gray & uniform, the wind
puckering in my windows, that
the tans & browns are
richer than a rainbow.North Fork Creek 496 M 3:25 EST
Dennis Lloyd told me yesterday my book,s
sold a thousand copies. Said it,s not selling
like a first book. Snow
prickling against windshield.
Separated by 1/10th of mile are 2
packets of flesh on the white dashes mid-road:
Packet 1, a collected gobbet of tan-brown fur
& Purple intestines; Packet 2, 6 inches of
a raccoon,s tail. Nothing else
Alleghany River 531 M 3:55 pm
am passed by blue Chrysler van
w/ sticker declaring "I believe in
angels snow fluffy now, not
specky & hard
All Around me the hue of dishwater
all day--and tan brown bottoming it
550 m--halfway pt. 4:10 PM EST
6 miles before I-79 snow
the size of teeth, I have
to defecate.O D Anderson Interchange, Now I-79.
Dusk-like brown light at Shenango
River 572 M 4:30 PM
"Welcome to Ohio 575 m Snow
Flurries, high winds, but warm: snow
teeth turn to waters on the windscreen.
Light brighter now, more like dishwater now
Must so often reach in and pull my scrotum
forward & up for the pain that I may
consider driving w/ my pants & sport briefs around
my knees.
Museum of Labor & Industry Akron
Hello Meander Reservoir! Hello 4
ducks!
Through the shitty plume of grit in
its wake I approach & pass an
aluminum semi-trailer w/ a filthy,
sodden American flag twitching shyly on its stern.It is at once fearsome & delightful
that Nationalism is the retreat
of the tacky & the stupid.607 M Stop to Defecate 5:01-07 PM EST
Upon exiting restroom car & vicinity
Covered completely in snow specks.
Slush on road. Snow larger now: cold cloakbuttons fall upon the road.Dried leaf (oak) falls to rd & rises
like struck & desperate bird.
The wind sounds desolateKent State University next right.
Squall is, apparently, full-on storm.
Am approaching snow plow
71 S 652 M 5:52 pm EST
655 m Here,s that stupid
flag-ass truck"As civilization grows, warfare
becomes less and less the normal condition
of formal relations. Theodore Roosevelt6:08 pm EST light fading snow still
falling. Visibility one mile
windshield fluid low, A dash
light tells me.Jetta stuck in median after
slipping there
"If a man continually blusters, if he lacks
civility, a big stick will not save
him from trouble; neither will speaking softly
avail if back of the softness there
does not lie strength, power.
Take heed, yipping dog, GW Bush!
this fr. Teddy! Light purple dusk
6:30 PM 694 m
Damn dark now 719 m 6:55 pm EST
720 m I stop to fill up
wiper reservoir & get tacos
at Taco Belll. 7:15 pm back on
G. Bellicose Bush is appealing to the
worst in Americans, he is an
simian blowhardroad slick with snow, on rightwing AM radio
I hear callers encouraging
the US to leave the UN. The ignorance
and violence in this country on the right
could scarify a boulder. And right
now I can hear China planning
to invade Taiwan for "Bush
Doctrine pre-emptive reasons.
I dislike pulling over to eat,
pee, defecate, and gas, and wd
prefer to cross this nation musing
in this almost bodiless way: but isn,t that
just very American of me: I believe in Angels too!
And wanna be one! Let,s incite Armageddon
Jesus Loves me this I know
for Jerry Falwell told me so
8:10 PM EST 782 m 4 Car
Accident in right ditch--spinouts
wide & far into ditch, police not
yet arrived.
10.179 g 393.9 M
Gas at South Vienna, OH 18:15-22
& PeeVery icy. Must not jerk wheel.
840 m no longer icy. Black Women
were first entertained in the White
House by Theodore Roosevelt.Can,t see a damn thing out there,
Ohio reduced to the hwy, the
headlight cone, high booby sodium
lights, Wild ices have perched upon
the armor of the roadThank You for Visiting Ohio
850.0 M 9:24 PM EST
What is the deal w/ Indiana and
billboards? Again the tugging
of the scrotum: it is a delicate
skin. Thank you, God, for pens.
This is a Rotring Core med or
broad nib.
AWP in Baltimore was interesting.Very good to hang w/ Pierre Joris
We talked of fountain pens &
to Watch Mairéad Byrne take
two panels through its presenters.
Meet Kazim Ali, Anastasios
Kozaitis, Patrick Herron, Diane
Boller, Josh Corey, Jane Sprague,
Rebecca Wolff, Lynn Emanuel,
Forrest Gander, Terrence Hayes, Natasha
Trethway & see Jim Bertolino,
Crystal Williams again,
I saw thistles jiggling, saw
tumbleweeds hunched pensively
in the Alcoves & Corners of the
Renaissance Harbor Hotel waiting
their turn at the elevators. At one point
a guy asked a question at the panel,
I walked up to him afterward and shook
hand and asked name, he said
"I,m just a student. and I wanted to
say "Jesus Christ, man, get a grip and
give him a hug
898 10:05 pm EST STOP to pee in
Rest Stop. Near Indianapolis
124 m at tank consumed. I pass
smoking pickup, as I pass, I hear
it rattling. Outskirts of Indy
9:30 PM CST.In Indy now: the hilly Lilly building
hunkers imperiously on the right at 926 M,
under large orange lights that
spell "Lilly in Cursive--each side
beaming the name toward the 4
cardinal directions of the planar Universe,
and above the Quartet of Lillys
an huge AMERICAN FLAG shakes rigidly
In a Southeast Wind, the flag is
very anxious-looking: looking in need
of PROZAC. How perfect the company of Prozac
and Forced Sleep has given Parisi,s POETRY
MAGAZINE a 100 million dollars. 74 W
940 M 9:51 pm CST
"My United States of Whatever-- #1 song
on MTV in GermanyDark and quiet west of Indianapolis.
Few cards on road now except me,
Jack of Spades. I miss, in this dark
driving and its hard pinpricks of lamps,
the early day and its boiling teeth of snow,
greasy mist, random almost whale-breath-smelling
fogs, the luminous dishwater sky,
the wet-brightened tans, blaring
charcoals of the damp trees (at times
their barks almost blue), and the sogged snow
clumped and frumpy as damp table salt.
Now it,s just a steady reeling into
blackness.
10:20 PM 975 m Providential break
in clouds affords me stellar view
of most of Orion in my driver,s window
I count 12 towers blinking now Across
140 degrees of horizon fr. a slightpromontory near HWY 231 interchange
before Sugar Creek 978 m, all
blinking red, the singular color
of information,s pointillism
10:35 PM CST STOP TO PEE 990 M
Waynetown IN 10:37 back on
74 West. Graffito as I peed: "Top
needs bottom 1/3 This is A
Waterman Phileas, medium nib.
"There is nothing more practical
in the end, then the preservation of
beauty. Teddy Roosevelt, at Stanford
University. Molar-sized snow briefly
near Shale Pitt Rd. 998 m
What Teddy Roosevelt shouted
when naturalist John Muir burned a
dead tree for him:
"THIS IS BULLY!1012 m "Illinois Welcomes [Me] too
10:58 pm
I am very tired and approaching
Champaign/Urbana 1040 m 11:22 pm
Gnats of snow streak in my
headlights
"Bloomington 33 1066 m 11:45
Tired. Worried about there being a
post-it note on my door when I
get home, by my landlord, the
policeman Rick Davis, for rent.Nancy Reagan lay at the roadside
all day, frightened by the gloomy
passing horses, until she remembered
she was an eagle--and she rose up,
finally, into the cold cloak buttons of
the snow, hauling the great
cannon of her torso and
its rusted orificeinto the ranch of the air,s ceiling,
the throw pillows up there,
the cool afghan of the jet stream.
1090 m A glow Above My rt side
of windshield: Bloomingtonglow is sodium colored, electric,
in low cloud, electrical gray yellow hazeexit 135 12:13 AM 1096 one
last tug at scrotum, then off hwy.12:20--at yard.
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