Abundant Life

Abundant Life    
 
Passing through nameless West Texas towns  
The neon sign of a motel flashes vacant  
Inside a reprieve from the cold road  
The endless asphalt stretching forward  
Like a jet trail through the dark sea of land  
Inside warm myself by the heater  
Listening to TV evangelists
Sermonizing apocalypse  
Across the electrified airwaves  
 
Sitting in the motel restaurant  
I dig into thick hamburgers  
Listening to Hank Williams crooning  
Your cheatin heart  
Walking across the parking lot,  
A teenage couple  
Lean against an old Buick making out  
 
My thoughts wander to childhood  
Limitless territories to explore  
Abundant life spreading across the world,  
A green revolution  
The bright sun of justice  
Reigning over our troubled land  
Smiling faces looking out of store windows  
People simply living,  
As though it were enough  
 
I hear a man cursing,  
A woman screams invectives  
Through the motel room wall  
As I lie silent in my bed  
Myriad thoughts unwind in my head
Hungers, dreams, regrets  
The flotsam and jetsam of a life  
Slowly the screaming dies down  
Leaving only the beating of my heart  
To keep me company