Poetry Place Collected Poems

Sign outside of Wagontire Oregon 1973

Sign outside of Wagontire Oregon 1973

In 1973 my Father and I took
An epic road trip
From Berkeley to Yakima

We decided to go through
Eastern Oregon
Just for the hell of it

And for the duration
We had a good time
My father and I

We usually did not get along
Just very different
Personalities

Driving along Highway 395
The loneliness highway
In America

That goes through
America’s outback
In Nevada, and Eastern Oregon

The least densely populated
Region of the
United States

One noticed the signs
About one hundred miles out
Wagontire 100 miles

Last services for the next 200 miles
Counting down until
You got into town

And the famous Burma shave signs

My favorite

“Remember driving fast
Gets you to the next life
Fast
Be careful

Burma Shave”

Nothing much there
A run-down dinner
General store
Gas station
And post office
And a small church
A few houses

Then you noticed the welcome sign


“Welcome to Wagontire

Population

10,000 cattle
10,000 chickens
5,000 pigs
5,000 pigs
Numerous antelope
Numerous deer
Numerous elk
Some wolves
Lots of coyotes
Lots of rabbits
10 dogs
Two and one half-humans.”

We asked the dinner owner
Also the sheriff, fire chief
And rancher and Postmaster,

“Say who is the half-human?”

“My idiot son”

In 2016
My wife and I drove across the country
Twice to celebrate my retirement
From the Foreign Service

10,000 miles
35 states
Three months
On the road

We drove through Wagontire

The sign was gone
Including
the Burma shave signs

Nothing left but
The long-abandoned dinner
Now just another ghost town

Among so many
In the Eastern Oregon desert
America’s outback
America’s empty quarter.

The idiot son
Never took
Over the business.