I am in a van
A white van travellin east thru texas
With my friends in a band calld Man/Miracle
There are many bands in many vans
Travelling this very land
Of cactus rock and storms of sand
Cuz a festival in austin calld
South By Southwest starts soon
And we see other vans at gas stations
And say hmm wonder if we know em
At one gas station we were
Warnd by a trucker
Not to sleep in a border town
“Marshall’s brother’s in El Paso!
They’re killin all over in Juarez!”
That was hours ago
Right now we’re leavin El Paso
America on our left
Juarez stretching to horizon
a bed of ill orange light
Like some matrix-machine city
That’s Juarez on our right
And the interstate
Shooting straight out ahead
The road is the border
We stoppd in el paso
- Don’t ask me why -
At walmart
Hole in the walmart
Seems like all texas was in there
The parking lot shared with
Hooters Red Lobster
Et cetera forgetera
Prime American-watching
I reminded the group the danger:
Try not to look like
A bunch of weirdo faggot musicians..
..Oh wait
As we include a purple poncho
With purple cutoff shorts
A serious beard
Leather shoes with shorts
Peter Pan with hemp slippers
Jacket like a patchwork quilt
We try the claw-catching prize machine
A dvd rental vending machine
Aisles of convenience foods
Instant white rice
Ham salad in a can
There’s a mcdonald’s in there
And watch out, lest you get run over
By the motorized obesity carts
This afternoon I realized
Why a penalty is called a “fine”:
You shouldn’t break the law,
But if you have the money
Then evrything’s fine…
We throw our 59 cent firecrackers
From the van in the parking lot
Nibble foods:
Some trail mix and chard
Some chicken mcsomething
Run three stop signs
Take five minutes to find an exit
From this mad parking lot
Throw Surfer Rosa on the stereo
And blaze our eastbound,
South by southwestbound,
Trail
The book Dune lay finished at my left
So the desert’s in my head
The way it makes a people hard
The way whites feared Geronimo
Without understanding necessity
And I scorn the murderous druglords
Just off to the right, in those lights
Cowardly fools, I think with fear
Yet I’m certain it’s they
Who overestimate what’s necessary
Stars here are quick to the naked eye
We have a google phone
With an app, it’s a star map
We aim it at the sky
And it shows us which dot is Mars
