A Lineage of Wanderers

In college

I was fortunate enough

to read Blue Highways

and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,

both of them

tales of wanderers

in the hidden byways

of America.

I didn't think of it then,

but they were helping explain

not only the country 

but myself

to me.

And so I suppose,

like any poet,

I sing of myself,

now,

about my part

in a much larger tradition

that continues

to this day.