98 West (or thereabouts)

By the time you get to Phoenix/I still won't have found the meriodonal/line where water gives way to dry

(Map courtesy of ScientificAmerican.com)

98 West (or thereabouts)

By the time you get to Phoenix
I still won't have found the meriodonal
line where water gives way to dry

A romantic would say 98 West
(or thereabouts) is where you stopped
weeping for the recent past

I say it's where some relation
of mine became a diviner.

There's water beneath our feet
so when you weep or seek 
blessings in the Kansas

Or Arkansas as the case may be
remember the treasure biting
your toes and forget the sky

The sky will change its mind 
and lie like a lover with eyes 
for someone else (oceans of course)

If you are restless just ask
where do the cattle wallow
on their long trek without 

Fodder or fallow. By the time
you reach Oklahoma City
you will know how the answer

While hardly pretty 
is a foundation of this 
country.

-Jeremy Nathan Marks