Running Outa Road Paint
the job sounded easy:
“just one white stripe on U.S. 50,
our truck, you buy the paint”
it musta been the new hard times
answering too quickly,
“sure, no problem”
but there was a problem
we shoulda looked at the map
first
U.S. Highway 50
starts in Ocean fuckin’ City, Maryland
stops in Sacra fuckin’ Mento, California
one white stripe
one-eighth inch thick
three long thousand miles long
how many gallons is 3000 miles?
the guy at the road paint store
says thirteen hundred seventy-seven
but he was just guessin’
guessin’
thirteen hundred seventy-seven
is a good number, spoken with conviction
we say “sure, no problem”
and it was no problem
to run outa road paint
in Jefferson fuckin’ City, Missouri
the stripe stopped smack
in front
of the one state fuckin’ capitol
nobody’s ever heard of
until they run outa road paint
we park on this bluff
above the Missouri River
taking it in, stripe or no stripe
waiting for more road paint
not waiting for more road paint
looking upstream
