Out West Trip March, 1989

Rising, surprising,

from Arizona’s dry palette,

Jerome is still clinging

to the side of its hill,

its roads steeply climbing

and lined with the houses

and shops built by miners

long since moved on,

where Slim Chance & Friends

are pickin’ nights at The Palace

drinkin’ watered down high balls

in tall, smoky rooms,

where mornings, the locals

are gathered at Macey’s

downing coffee and pies

and the talk of the town,

where Dede won’t stay

in hotels rumored haunted,

where Tracy, the potter,

makes up his spare rooms,

where Still Life With Woodpecker’s

on the shelf in the hallway

signed by Tom Robbins,

still wishing “Good Luck”.

 

 

Previously Published in Wish You Were Here: A Poetry and Prose Anthology by Old Mountain Press