Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DRIVING TOWARD BOSTON, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DRIVING TOWARD BOSTON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tonight we are driving past lac qui parle toward boston
Last Line: High as the dakota mountains! High as the great mountain near fargo!
Subject(s): Boston; Poetry & Poets


1.

Tonight we are driving past Lac Qui Parle toward Boston.
When I think of Boston ladies i am suddenly galvanic with joy!
I see them lying there, pale with Love . . . like flowers . . . like
palimpsests!
On which we can still make out a few marginal words . . .
Wampum . . . rackrent . . . pui ine o dromos sto horyo, asshole!
Ah -- the lemon ladies and the lime-green ladies of Boston!

2.

The parlors of those houses on the road to Boston are full of salt.
These ladies have taken the sea to bed just once too often . . .
And the men -- ah, here the Cabots and the Lodges and Lowells are dozing
(Dreaming of rum and molasses, dreaming of Sacco and Vanzetti)
In an oily torpor, like the sleep of ancient Cadillacs . . .
Alas! John Adams: desuetude has entered the timing-chains of those enormous
engines!

3.

Driving toward Boston we pass the Stuffed Ski Surf Shop --
And then the Stuffed Ski Surf Shop -- again and again!
Perhaps we are not driving toward Boston after all . . .
Waltham flies by, full of mysterious time zones . . .
I know Boston is on the Post Road someplace in the nineteenth century.
The wind is whistling a snatch in the puritan winefield.
I speed forward, confident, thinking of the Boston ladies;
A little of last year's blue blood dreams and screams in the ditch.
Comforted, I press on -- and on -- perfectly happy.

4.

Whether or not we are heading toward Boston
(And even the question of whether I'm perfectly happy)
I leave to another time -- a time full of lakes -- and crickets!
Meanwhile I drive past Waltham again, gaining more time,
Somewhere on the road to or away from Boston . . .
Thinking of the Boston ladies I have a powerful erection!
High as the Dakota mountains! High as the great mountain near Fargo!


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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