I Dreamt of a Bus Terminal

I Dreamt of a Bus Terminal

                           Maybe all one can do is hope to end up

                           with the right regrets.

                                                                      Arthur Miller

I dreamt of a bus terminal

linoleum tenderized by soles, air staled

by souls

Aswarm with vacant visage that spoke

all language but mine - every sign alien

every word unimagined

Here and there a poster of a beach

or a mountain or the LA Airport Theme

Building here and there a diesel burble

The scrambled chatter - atteindre lograr erreichen

television amour amor liebe movie studios

famille familia familie

One long queue passed the time

stock-still intent on the departure gate

as if they had pre-determined goals

Preset direction

I waited among them and their intent

for somewhere to somewhere unknown

We rode for hours as black crabbed into the windows

and then the stops began

one by one each one ripe as blue pre-dawn

I chose a place amid the mercury shadows of palms

and stayed there a lifetime

to meet natives in pleats and ties- to find a purpose

with celluloid plow and celluloid scythe

Never quite sure where I was

where I had come from

what else I might have missed or why

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