Here are a few poems I have written about travels here in the United States:
Missouri
My geography teacher told me
It was shaped like a boot.
So was Italy as I later recalled,
Somewhere on a hot evening;
Out of gas and patience
Up near Independence.
Red-skied evening blinds.
Italy seems a far off dream.
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Minnesota
Minnesota
My map of Minnesota
Is folded and creased,
Narrow pencil lines follow
Northerly routes and roads.
Easing into St. Paul,
Sunday morning suns
Outline skyscrapers,
Trailer trucks, dirty air
And that muddy old river.
10,000 lakes are far away!
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Maine
Even vacationers need a vacation.
I looked out my front window
Upon the blessings of a fall day
And wonder why
We call it “Vacationland.”
My world is defined by four seasons,
Autumn is my favorite I guess.
I love all those falling leaves,
Needlessly piled on the lawn.
Even vacationers need a vacation.
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Louisiana
Eastern sunrise breaks
Far away in dream land.
Little did I know
Our brief time together
Under a Louisiana sun,
Inhabiting each other’s space
Should become a fantasy
I never want to wake from.
Another Louisiana day
Now stretches before me,
Another Louisiana day.
Eastern sunrise breaks
Far away in dream land.
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Michigan
We wandered to the UP
when you were a baby;
Nature, nature everywhere,
Like a cliche postcard.
Sometimes I look back,
When I am lost and alone.
My mind travels,
To where I went wrong.
Was it a proverbial
Wrong turn
Or a falling out
That made me single?
One day your mom
Loaded you and suitcases
Into a 1992 Ford Taurus
And drove away.
We wandered to the UP
when you were a baby,
Nature, nature everywhere,
Like a cliche postcard.
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