white buffalo

white buffalo: something sacred and rare; also a talented roots/American country musician

Wider than the high dessert highway it stood atop, there it was, a giant ashy white buffalo not even 50 feet from the hood of my car. I don't remember stopping, I don't even remember getting to where I was, but I was not moving, engine barely rumbling, impeded by this mammoth creature's fortitude. Like an all too obvious symbol of my very own self doubt, it both terrified and calmed me. Determined, I put my car in reverse and backed up slightly. Turning the steering wheel slightly to the right, I felt the rubber of the tires scrape across the road, pushing a small amount of loose gravel aside. Shifting to drive, I let the car roll forward, to the right, out of the buffalo's path. But to my frustration, the buffalo took two steps right and directly in my way. I tried the same process to the left, but the buffalo took two steps to the left, blocking any effort to move beyond. After what seemed mythical and majestic eternity, the world's longest staring competition had just been won by the only white buffalo left in northern America. I had no choice, reluctantly, I backed up one last time, swung my car around and drove off in the opposite directed, headed back to where I had just come from. As the yellow dashes and toothpick trees rushed past me, the buffalo  grew smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror. Confidence is not something that always propels you forward, into the future, but sometimes forces you to revisit the past. Do return, to do again.

glint

glint: give out or reflect small flashes of light

when the noise gets too loud
there is a way
a way to let the shrill din seep out
and the calm smooth wave of silence roll in

there is a way
a way that rips apart the thin black felt of the speaker
freeing the stampede of thoughts and emotions trapped inside
a way that lets the musical chaos spill over like a gushing river of crimson red
swiftly oozing out and away to a downhill destination

there is a way
a way for the speaker to be filled back up with fizzy pops and snugly epiphanies
like a gentle vacuum sucking up a rush of endorphins
this way brings instant warmth and ephemeral delight

I sit and watch, high, following this way
the way I've always known
as the blood drips down
ka-plop
onto the glinting, glorious razor

I am fine
I am better
I am alive