by Carl Clay Caulkins

Fare thee well, Oklahoma
Buick, take me west
    I’m blinded by the sun
    And just like Jesse
       when he was on the run
I’m unable to rest

Out here in the middle of nowhere
A phone booth is the only sign of life
    There it stands, alone in the snow
    So inviting
       Like the home fires burnin’ low
It’s enough to make a man
                                miss his wife

              ********

Mystery road
       Hands reach out on either side
Yes, this mystery road
       Is a long hard ride
Why tell me why
Don’t I have my darlin’
Sittin’ by my side

              ********

My eyelids are heavy
And it’s awful hard to hold up my head

    I’m lighter than air
    I haven’t a single care
All I need is supper and a bed

In my dreams, Nancy screams
And my heart leaps up into my throat
    The truck roars past me
                    an inch away

    I can hear the big tires whisper
                    the big tires they say

“Almost all she wrote”

              ********

Mystery road

      Hands reach out on either side

Yes, this mystery road

      Is a long hard ride

If it hadn’t been for foolish pride

I’d have my darlin’

Sittin’ by my side

by Carl Clay Caulkins

Papa lies under the willow
    and Mama lies over the sea
My jack knife lies under my pillow
    keeping me company

Easy questions, they throw me
    and hard ones come as a surprise
Friends aren’t sure that they know me
    they show me with their eyes

         The worst of the winter
            has come and gone
         And now it seems
            like the ghost of a dream
     A dream I will never understand
            Here comes the dawn
               I was wonderin’
               where she’d gone
            These tin coffee cups
               sure do warm up
                  your hand
               Ain’t life grand?

My feet beat a path to your doorway
    my heart’s worn a hole in my sleeve
It’s oh so difficult to stay here
    and it’s impossible to leave

Maybe it’s hunger that brings me back
    maybe I’m flirting with doom
Or maybe it’s just a voice I trust
    that whispers to me
    when I’m in this room

         The worst of the winter
            has come and gone
         And now it seems
            like the ghost of a dream
     A dream I will never understand
            Here comes the dawn
               I was wonderin’
              where she’d gone
            These tin coffee cups
               sure do warm up
                  your hand
               Ain’t life grand

by Alessandro Spinazzi

You have
to give up
drinking
(for a while
nothing is
forever)
not
to be
sober
but
to get drunk
on morning breeze
and have
hangovers
for having
contemplated
the moon
of the night before
for too long

you’ll sit
by your hotel window
with new eyes
the movie
is still on
with a new plot

you are not alone
in it

easy to say
i know
i know.

by Alessandro Spinazzi

In the rainy dark of the evening
a film in black and white
except for a spectral
yellow
from the factories
walking with you
your small hand
hanging on
to my index finger
a well known scene
who knows where from
an old man, silent
strolling along
with a small kid
by his side
twittering questions
each one mirror
of the other
past and future
reflections
in a present
so beautiful
it hurts.