Abundant Life                                                                                                                                                                                                                            12:40 a.m. 4-13-00

 

Passing through nameless West Texas towns

The neon sign of a motel flashes vacant

Inside a reprieve from the cold road

The endless asphalt stretching forward

Like a jet trail

Through the dark sea of land

Inside warm myself by the heater

Listening to TV evangelists

Sermonizing apocalypse

Across the electrified airwaves

Sitting in the motel restaurant I

Dig into thick hamburgers

Listening to Hank Williams crooning,

Your cheatin heart

Walking across the parking lot,

A teenage couple are leaning against,

An old Buick making out

My thoughts wander to childhood

Limitless territories to explore

Abundant life spreading across the world,

A green revolution

The bright sun of justice reigning

Over our troubled land

Smiling faces looking out of store windows

People simply living, as though it were enough

I hear a man cursing, a woman

Screaming invectives through the motel room wall

As I lay silently in my bed

Myriad thoughts unwinding in my head

Hungers, dreams, regrets

The flotsam and jetsam of a life

Slowly the screaming dies down

Leaving only the beating of my heart

To keep me company