night bus stanzas

orange crescent moon
over st-louis-du-ha-ha
so upright it can't hold rain

sandford fleming time fell backward
an hour—thin moon almost
sitting on trans-canada highway

eye water wets my cheeks
no not crying pollen drop
passed twice through same time

moon slides through night
into trees and irving gas station
auberge motel déppaneur

backlit no smoking sign reflected
outside bus onto moving night
rolling through la belle province

purple and/or red neon outlines
—earth has spun us away
from any more moon tonight

motel claude motion sensor light
illuminated waterbottle on bicycle
—no one waits for this bus

rosary bead red lights climb
night sky—precursor
to hilltop illuminated crosses

ton dieu more obvious here
build into the landscape
like highway approaching seaway

notre dame du lac reflects
lights surrounding the lac
visited 20-some years ago

girl gave hitchhiking me a ride
took me to her family's auberge
fed and put me back on the road

this time i pay for wheels
to roll 'cause the alloted travel
insufficient for no step wings

on one inside the locked cafe
storytelling poem keeps me awake
keeps my prison song on the road

it's a long way to toro
it's a long way to senta
how can i roll without dough

dawn serenade in pocket
bottled water in hand
rather have a beer and fall . . .

roll on buddy past xxx dansers
done the road from maritimes
into lower canada toward upper

my dear a dream fantôme
far away in new hush job
haven't heard how anything

letters not sent covered table
handwritten after mealtimes
—will they ever be read

fox scent enters bus air
orange arrowheads glow on curve
mine the only passenger light on

perhaps it's time to stop
writing before riviér-du-loup:
leaping deer crossing roadsign

© Joe Blades 2006

T-shirt: Ruminator Books
loc: Acadian (Orleans) bus 5462 on Trans-Canada Highway westbound
temp: 22 C
sound: tinny music from headphone on other heads