KEROUAC’S ROOM
A brown box radio
plays scratchy songs
into a room
where outside neon lights
breathe a fuzzy hum
of blue and red
through weathered curtains
as the river far below
rumbles deep past the
town covered in soot
as he groans out a
snappy beat
on a pawn shop typewriter
decorating paper
with his thoughts from
dreams and travel
and diners where cold
food is served by a waitress
named Flo
and where its
always raining outside
when he wants to leave to
somewhere out there
past the open window
and the river
and everything he wants
to leave behind.
Roger Singer 