American metaphors on Nevada highways in the August sun.  billboards
exposing themselves like aroused organs.  beneath the deafening
sound of the landscape.  trying to keep everything in perspective

we came out here from the cities
we came out here from our heat and frustrations
we came out here

to change our skin
in white Chevrolet convertibles.  breaking through the barriers
that lay ahead.  a thousand and one enclosed shopping malls
crushed like dirt under the wheels of the car
the snakeskin on the side of the road
the cool vegetation
and seclusion in shadows
of Wild Horse Canyon

the snakeskin on the side of the road

we came out here
when the movement of thunder and rain was filling the atmosphere
clouds pressed down on the rooftops
causing cracks in the ceilings
in the hallways
the angel of mercy was turned away
by a lean white boy
pressing his finger to an angry gun
on the dark side of the moon
the seas of tranquility
bombarded by a shower of meteorites

the snakeskin on the side of the road

we came out here in the great masochistic night
guided by the fires burning on the mountains
 

©1980, from THE TEMPLE (Telephone Books)