The Gray Pilgrim
Operating on instinct rather than intellect, I pull up to the gas pump
in need of coffee as much as my car needs fuel.
A casualty of a late night and an early morning, I linger in the misty
twilight of dreams and reality, as I saunter toward the entrance of
the twenty-four hour convenience store.
Parked on the side, I notice an old biker readying his motorcycle for
the day’s travel.
I recognize him immediately.
A hometown boy, born and bred on Long Island, matured in
Brooklyn and now he sleeps in New Jersey.
He is a sojourner who has crisscrossed the country countless times
chronicling and cataloging the people, places and things he’s
encountered from:
New York to San Francisco, Daytona to Sturgis,
Chicago to New Orleans, Boston to Los Angeles,
the big cities, the small towns and all the villages, hamlets and
whistle-stops found in-between.
To some he is an eccentric renegade filled with purposeless
wanderlust.
As for myself and others he is a maverick, a rebel, a hero who
celebrates his freedom.
He is all American and he is ageless.
Spry for his years, rough hewn with a lean wiry frame, his face taut
like rough weathered leather beneath a long gray beard, creased
with the lines of many miles and many years.
He’s dressed in a tan deerskin duster with fringes and faded blue
jeans.
On his head he wears a stars and stripes bandanna to keep his
bushy, silver white hair in place.
His bike is an expression of himself.
Dusty but not dirty from the road, the engine, a big V-Twin, sits
mounted on a mono-shock soft tail frame with a fat bob gas tank
and teardrop fenders, painted electric blue and highlighted with red
and white pin stripes.
A cool rigid look, fine tuned by a low slung saddle seat with a
passenger pad and an old worn rucksack tied to the small sissy bar.
The pull back handle bars and a wide glide front end that rolls on
chromed spoke wheels gives the impression of constant motion.
It has retro-classic style for a long easy ride, standing still;
it beckons for the open road.
It is a machine to epitomize the power and prestige of the American Dream.
He mounts the bike, starts it up and roars toward the open road.
A resounding thunder shatters the silence of the new morning.
The fringes of his jacket give the appearance of wings,
an eagle gliding on the wind.
Walt Whitman rides a Harley Davidson.
Submited by
Poesia :
- Login to post comments
- 1628 reads
other contents of poetpete
Topic | Title | Replies | Views | Last Post | Language | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Poesia/Poetrix | Living in the war zone | 0 | 4.644 | 05/21/2013 - 12:14 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Banished | 0 | 3.924 | 07/26/2012 - 12:41 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | prelude | 0 | 3.778 | 05/08/2013 - 11:37 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Kitty Cushion | 0 | 3.032 | 05/08/2013 - 11:39 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Lost Poem | 0 | 3.420 | 07/26/2012 - 12:41 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | The Tilt of Inspiration | 0 | 1.783 | 05/14/2011 - 01:28 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | anti-poem | 0 | 1.830 | 05/14/2011 - 00:10 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Query | 0 | 1.617 | 05/14/2011 - 00:21 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Drinking Antarctica Apple Cider | 0 | 2.522 | 05/14/2011 - 00:16 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Getting IT | 0 | 1.779 | 05/14/2011 - 00:29 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Oasis of Chaos Theory | 0 | 1.779 | 05/14/2011 - 01:05 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Culture Spawned in a Petri-dish | 0 | 1.870 | 05/14/2011 - 01:08 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Open Mic at The Oswego Tea House | 0 | 1.532 | 05/14/2011 - 01:19 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Google Yahoo Wikipedia Bing Blog | 0 | 1.746 | 05/14/2011 - 01:22 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | It’s Totally Art | 0 | 2.149 | 05/14/2011 - 01:34 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | somnium poetae | 0 | 2.101 | 05/14/2011 - 20:01 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Poetry from the Gut* (Grand Unified Theory) | 0 | 1.672 | 05/14/2011 - 20:24 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | The Book Review | 0 | 2.112 | 05/14/2011 - 20:26 | English | |
Poesia/Passion | Burnt Offerings | 0 | 2.814 | 05/14/2011 - 20:31 | English | |
Poesia/Meditation | Coney Island Sunset | 0 | 2.752 | 05/14/2011 - 20:40 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | I Don't Sleep I Dream | 0 | 1.867 | 05/15/2011 - 03:57 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Beware | 0 | 2.639 | 05/15/2011 - 03:59 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | oscar night | 0 | 1.557 | 05/15/2011 - 04:01 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | Deus ex machine* | 0 | 1.930 | 05/15/2011 - 04:03 | English | |
Poesia/Poetrix | the ignited shambles | 0 | 2.235 | 05/15/2011 - 04:05 | English |
Add comment