Inspiration

 

The blank page is inspiration—

 

a silent beckoning

in the mind’s ears.

 

Listen.

It is just like the ocean’s coy whisper

in a conch shell,

whooshing.

 

A toddler scampers across it,

leaving word-like footprints.

 

Lacking social concerns,

he builds sandcastles of

 

random syllables.

Unwittingly,

 

the wave grows toward

tsunami,

 

washes away innocence,

 

replaces it with complex

tortured syntax

 

and walks away.

 

 

 

Planning My Road Trip

 

            This will be epic!

 

I am planning my road trip.

(Who am I kidding? I am daydreaming.)

Really, I will have to be frugal

and pack light,

 

but for an extended adventure—

bring only essentials. Roll my bedroll

tightly, strap it

tightly to the luggage rack.

 

The saddlebags are filled

with necessities: road flares, inner tube,

a selective assortment of tools.

 

A duffel of clothes fit for all seasons

sits on the passenger pillion (rides bitch,

if you will),

which would otherwise be empty.

 

My route has been mapped out,

with various alternatives tossed about,

like a maverick or nomad.

 

I will visit forty-eight states

(and at least one foreign country) alone.

Of course, many things,

 

like consumables, I can gather

on the road;

beg, borrow, steal the rest. I will need

a pup tent and a Coleman stove

 

for the road-side campsites

I will sleep at to save money

on occasion, weather permitting.

 

It will be bare-bones and dirt-cheap.

(Yes, even in my dreams.)  Now,

if only I still had my hog. . . . It won’t

be the same in an RV.

 

Eric Blanchard

Growing up in Texas, Eric dreamed of dropping out of high school, but when the haze of adolescence cleared, he found himself in law school instead. After being a trial lawyer for a decade and a half, he ran away to Ohio, where he taught school and lived life for about a minute. Eventually, he returned home to help care for his parents. Eric’s poetry has been included in numerous collections, both online and in hard copy. In 2013, his prose poem “The Meeting Ran Long” was nominated for Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net anthology. His chapbook, The Good Parts, will be published in January 2020 by Finishing Line Press.

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