i keep studying the same line
for hours on end,
but i don’t think i’ve gotten any closer
to understanding what it’s trying to tell me,
but that might be because it’s blank
i heard you know what’s going on,
and i’d like to ask you if you could enlighten me
for a pack of spearmint gum that i found
on the bank of a creek
where i caught a fish i named hubert
so i might know who and what i am eating
by fire
i’m trying to keep out of my own way,
towards a direction that seems far off,
especially while looking back
in the rearview mirror,
hitchhiking with a broken finger
in the middle of the desert
with no cars in sight
Fred Aiken Writing 