LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "This Lonely Highway"

[halfshellvenus]

This Lonely Highway
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 16, #1
Kako no ashoito (memories/events/influences from the past)

x-x-x-x-x

Wheeling through the dark,
light lost to the stars
and the city far behind us,
we travel the barren highway
toward a distant promise.
The moon gleams cold as ice.

On a looming hilltop,
a lone steer stands, starkly
black against the dimness behind it.
The unfenced land crowds close,
the highway an inky ribbon
stretching into the night.

Nothing thrives in this desert,
in this unforgiving land
along the road to somewhere else.
Time waits frozen, as unyielding
as the desolation
of this lonely, forgotten place.

Wakeful, I watch the hills unfold,
mark a field light's deathly glow.
Ghost songs on the radio
float up through the static
in this in-between nowhere
caught so very far from home.


--/--

If you enjoyed this entry, please vote for it in the poll here.

Comments

[halfshellvenus]

This imagery has been with me for years, from trips going from Oregon to Utah as a child. It would always be dark as we went south along the Oregon/Idaho border, and there was never anything out there but the occasional cow or barn, or a single ghostly-gray light mounted on a pole. That light and the feeling it evoked was always somehow even more desolate than mere darkness alone. It seemed as if we could be lost out there forever, never arriving anywhere ever again.

[roina_arwen]

On a looming hilltop,
a lone steer stands, starkly

Hubby and I have driven around that vicinity before; I think I’ve seen this or something like it - what I recall is a metal steer or bull sculpture on a hilltop. A lovely and evocative poem!

[inkstainedfingertips]

This is really stark and, for me, has a really ominous and lonely feel.

Ghost songs on the radio
float up through the static
in this in-between nowhere
caught so very far from home.

Your final section here, really caught my attention. For me, it feels packed with emotion. There's longing. There's grief. There's a whole lot more. It's a fantastic skill to evoke all of that with so few words. But this stanza really encapsulates that feeling of longing and loneliness for me.

Beautiful work.

[drippedonpaper]

I really liked this poem. We took road trips as a kid and I enjoyed the night riding most of all, when almost everyone was asleep, except Dad who was driving and often me.

I miss my dad. Due to circumstances, I don't see him often. I miss those times that felt like just us.

You draw with such beautiful imagery. Thank you for sharing!

[rayaso]

Great poem, as usual. You usually write fiction, but your poems are always memorable. I loved the lines "Ghost songs on the radio/float up through the static". It sounds so lonely. I have been on trips like this, also through eastern Oregon, but I always had great company. The imagery here is so lonely and empty.