Truckers' and Others Poems & Poetry

The old-timers story was like that of a hard drinking cowboy, tossed about by the winds of misfortune, in a worn-out Louis L’amour paperback novel with dog-eared pages faded over time. It was filled with adventure, romance, drama, and a cast of mostly hard luck rabble-rouser’s who breathed life into it—no two being quite the same—and offered the reader a small measure of highbrow humor mixed with back-alley discourse.

Chapters penned by the stony hands of a traveling man educated at curbside level, and within the dignified walls of academia as well, recalled a young man’s adventurous journey to southern Texas, a picturesque shoreline in Maine—where lobstermen earned their living—stepping down dark streets in the South Bronx, and cold winter nights cross-docking in Chicago. His three-year stint in the Marine Corps, countless miles of over-the-road truck driving, and so forth.

The weathered old man’s story would never have made the New York Times bestseller list, or been honored with prestigious shelf space at Barnes and Nobel, although, he wouldn’t have written it any other way.

© 2006 KJ Santana