America in 5 Lines
America has a fever. Get in line.

America in Five Lines
There are hundreds of cars
at the Philipsburg Y
At lunch and after work
they descend in droves
For food
To stretch a dollar
And make ends meet
Thousands of meals
Free for the taking
Less destitute,
this bread line of SUVs
Need which is
less humiliating
Drive up and go
in your sunglasses
They won’t see that you
need
There are hundreds in line
at the drive up testing center
In Houston’s
Summer heat
They had the sniffles
a headache
a cough, you know,
They need to
Ease their fear.
To see
If they are among the lucky
…It was just a scare…
Silly really
Negative.
Negative is good.
Or among the banished
The quarantined
The lonely ones
The untouchables
Who must try
to survive
Pray
It’s not too bad
The germ
May it pass over
May it have mercy
There is a line of a half a million
Choppers
And dressers
And trikes
And hogs
In staggered rows down highway 90
From Rapid City
And Spearfish
And Deadwood
Gettin’ their motors runnin’
Like some lost
Peter Fonda dream
Star-spangled gas tank
Ride
Or die
Or both
Freedom
From fear
Of the germ
That they share
We laughed