Good Company

by LnrDn

I drove 13 thousand miles
and all I saw were cows.
I only meant to drive
Clean across the country and back.

Everything looked the same.
Cows under that smoky
Montana sky,
Cows plodding across the
Utterly dry Colorado,
Cows,
Gnawing away at the plains.

I was nostalgic for stories,
Or misdirection,
Twain, McMurtry, Kerouac.
I got lost a long time ago.

I thought I’d find a dreamy peace
If I slept outside and ate out of a can,
Renewed my faith
in God,
or country,
or at least myself.

But they didn’t tell me about cows.
They never told me
in El Paso, between the
flickering neon
               girls girls girls
and the world’s biggest gas station
               cows cows cows
Waiting to die
With dust in their eyes.