Sundown

The sun fades over

the horizon.

About the same

as when T. rex

looked up

from whatever 

she was eating.

Probably.

Might be

a few minutes

plus or minus

in the planet’s spin

from dawn til dusk.

Does that comfort you?

It does for me.

That’s the moment

for cocktail hour!

Have a Martini or a Mojito,

Manhattan or a Margarita.

Iced Tea or just

a sparkling water

with a slice of lime.

We’re still here.

For another day at least

and the question

as always is…

what are you gonna

do about tomorrow?

I think God got bored

waiting for T. rex

to figure out something

beyond how to get

a few hundred pounds

of meat in her belly.

And eventually

we came along.

with our slings and arrows,

our violins. Bronze.

Ferraris. Feather pillows,

Birthday cakes.

Prayers and kisses.

Songs.

Goodnight sun,

see you  tomorrow.

US INTERSTATE 5

Some people find

Interstate Highway 5

Boring. Not me, I

like the contours

of the hills,

the smooth shapes

that so resemble

a sleeper who

lies dreaming

on her side.

Thousand-acre orchards

of peaches, pistachios,

raisin vineyards,

walnuts, and nectarines 

Tumbleweed and

prairie scrub where

the land looks

as endless as the sea.

Where the owls nest

underground and

kit foxes hunt

kangeroo rats on

moonlit nights.

No towns adjacent

to the twin ribbons

of pavement, just

metastatic clusters

of Chevron, Shell and Arco.

Each station with

a mini market stocked

with six dozen brands

of energy drinks,

sodas, flavored

sparking waters

packaged sandwiches,

microwave burritos

and sausage, egg and cheese

muffins or biscuits.

Roller hotdogs, trucker caps,

cheap cowboy hats.

smokeless tobacco,

vape cartridges and

the scent of stale coffee.

Endless chains of trucks.

Classic retail may be dying

but all that stuff still gets

sold online and Fedex, UPS,

and Amazon are busy

hauling it from port to town.

It all moves at eighty plus.

Roll at seventy and you

get rolled over by Hondas

Fords, or Chevys. Volvos.

Toyotas or Teslas.

The California Aqueduct

snakes back and forth

beside the freeway,

fed by water that flowed

in rivers before the

cities and the farms

got so thirsty. There

are largemouth bass,

carp and catfish in the

concrete channel.

I wonder if they get bored.