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| On the Road an all-American novel that made Beat poet Jack Kerouac a household name |
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| Pin on Buddhist quotes by famous people like Jack Kerouac (pinterest.com) |
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"Repo Man"
Walked all the way down Telegraph
towards the Bay and the freeway
where I hitched a ride with Jim
driving a brand new Riviera
I had just read Kerouac’s magnum opus
and remembered a childhood event
the weekly pilgrimage to church
seven of us in a Ranch Wagon
running late checking the clocks
in gas stations racing by
passing Jim Child’s Brick on the boulevard
this 5-year-old never saw any children or bricks
until Dad explained it all about how words can have
multiple meanings and ambiguity between the lines
and that Jim Childs was owner of a car dealership
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| Jack Kerouac | Kerouac Society |
Jim Charron asking to be called JC as he grinned
the left side of his neck and face
and outboard arm sunburned red
for he was a repo man he explained
driving over this great land of ours
repossessing what was bought but not paid for
by frickin’ deadbeats
and he had just picked up this beauty in Berkeley
and I could ride with him all the way to LA
just had to pick up another repo in San Jose
but he’d hate to have to tow it
towing slowed him down
so would I like to drive it
I was pleased he could trust a college kid
so I said sure and an hour later we were
at a fancy white house with a picket fence
Sheriff’s deputy armed with writ and revolver
and a hotwire mechanic armed with a Slim-Jim
and before we knew it we were stealing
a nearly new car right out of a driveway
from a newly delinquent no longer legal owner
who’d gotten in over his head with too many girlfriends
and mortgages and bankruptcy and divorce proceedings
now way behind on payments
You never really own anything
They started it just as the deadbeat came running out
waving a rubber check with lipstick stains on his shirt
and red slap marks on his face under tears running down
but the deputy waved him off with the court order
Didn’t have to shove the .44 Magnum in his face
as Mike the mechanic burned rubber driving it
down the block and around the corner
where Jim said Get in and keep up
I drove just as fast flying down the highway
master of the road king of the universe
blasting our way south to LA
at the speed of sound and light
at the wheel of a black Cadillac
Jim called it a big ass land yacht
radio blasting Like a Rolling Stone
time to think time to feel time to breathe
time to be here now time to live or die to groove
so very beat — an 18-year-old freshman
cruising at 80 with Jack in the back
Dean riding shotgun
What was in that little white pill Jim gave me
Said it would help me stay awake
Hours later we passed far down the 101
near Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo
a wreck off the side of the road
two cars twisted together
bodies splattered all over the pavement’s grey
police cars and fire trucks and ambulances
swarming the site emergency
personnel working and as I was getting tired
I realized that could have been me
falling asleep at the wheel
drifting across the center line
smashing into oncoming traffic
and I still had lots of miles to go before I sleep
but I wanted to go on the road drive to New York
with the Dharma Bums and fly me to the moon
around the world in 80 ways across the universe
just wanted to make it home for Thanksgiving
We are all driving rentals on suspended licenses
trying to outrun the big repo guy in the sky
CHARLES HARMON is former science teacher in Los Angles, who loves to write, live, love, cook, and eat. He find teaching science to be like cooking and cooking like writing poetry. He is currently working on a novel. He has been published in Spectrum, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Altadena Poetry Review, Lummox, Frogpond, Ribbons, Atlas Poetica, bottle rockets, Akitsu, hedgerow, failed haiku, Red Shift, Haiku Foundation Dialogue, prune juice, Autumn Moon, All the Way Home: Aging in Haiku Anthology...
The Dharma Bums
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| A bhikkhu reborn on the road |
- Poet Charles Harmon remembers Jack Kerouac (Kerouac Society); Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
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