Tempting Fate on the Interstate
Words inspired by a late night encounter on I-75 in Nevada.
Melodic mayhem, intrusive thought, destructive doer of the dumb, what’s that you say? In the coffined air of a midnight stillness your static sucks to clear.
The channel is open. Yes, I hear you. Receiving your OTR transmission.
The siren’s call comes, flashing as a gas-powered firefly engaged in my private nighttime.
Ah, what bliss your melody! Your majors and minors fill my tank from well below empty to above, then half, then full. An improbable refuel to a raw and ignored soul. To hear this impulse chorus and twitch the pelvis and muscle and heart to the dance of it. What joy. What luck. What truth.
I am tuning in. To the real message. The perceived order. The universal directive. I am receiving it, fully, and loudly.
I will obey it in every dimension. I will obey it in this one on the one.
With hope grasping at my throat, I accept the darkest swing of your metronomic swagger. Your blade pierces the dullest cell, scattering me to bright action. It is what must be done. I hear you, and I will.
Casting to the wind, to the sky, to the darkness, to the road ahead and beside and beneath. Obeying this and only this, the momentum of misery finds its spark in the shoulder. Tick-tock-tick, together we must go.
To surge. To spring. To stride the bright paint of the interstate.
Oh, my heart! My heart must tell me when.
I go.
Nnnnnn….N…Now!
Flushed and drunk on giddy guides, I go. Consciousness blinks limbs to action. Red to green. Dead to alive. Shallow to deep. I go!
Heels filled with heat, sensing the thumping engagement of pure mechanical flesh and bone and hair and skin. This is function at its most basic. Driven by need. By urge. Ignoring the alarms of a panicked and parental atmosphere, surging toward the answer to a question I dare not ask.
This life! This earth! Here! I am alive!
Embracing the knife edge of it with arms and legs and chest.
Prepared to bleed out a joyful, relieved yes into the tapestry of it all.
Adrenaline sings out to the hall of the world. To the rafters. To the roof. To the sky. Against the cloth backdrop of a dark world, I am a pin prick of light, a celestial orb, caught by the naked eye of my one true observer. The milky way stirs me into soup, and here the flecks of my sin rub shoulders with the salt of my good. Here, I am a star, I am a planet. I am a galaxy, and a universe.
Defiance drapes its cloak upon my shoulders and crowns me as its King.
Arise.
I am not in the moment.
I am the moment.
There are fate lines to cross here. I cross them. One. Two. Three.
I dance upon these lifelines, flashing proof at you from out the buttons of my existence coat.
The world is solid. The world is hard. It is made of rock and life and unjust, long agonies.
I am crushed into multicolored soils. I am thrown from tall cliffs into vacant space. I am dashed against rocks made angry by this sea. The wind picks me up and hurls me toward translucence daily.
I am a not seen and never been, but for this brief, witnessed testimony I am pure reality.
Wake up.
No meaning. No plan. No goal beyond the goal.
Just what we must do to feel alive. To make it to the other sides.
Taillights fade and upon me again, a stillness descends to be shouldered once more.
By me.
We are home when we are most alone.
This piece is part of a series called the “Summer of Song Dispatches.” To hear the story behind this piece, let me read it to you here 👇
This week’s amends…
Excerpt from the chapbook "Seeds on Hard Ground" by Tom Waits (from this reading above)
I'm the bursting bubble.
My crown is my hat.
And when it comes to trouble,
I'm the king of all that.
I missed the 3rd print run back in Sept. 2025. There were only 2000 prints made and I wish I had one. Oh well!
“Can I pull myself up from the bootstraps of this song”
So good.
All proceeds from sales of it went to homeless charities. From Tom Waits official:
"...originally released in 2011 to raise awareness and funds for homeless services. The poem is a long lyrical ballad in the voices of those who walked, fell or were pushed to the margins of our communities."
On Rotation: "Through the Horizon" by The Claypool Lennon Delirium.
During the Summer of Song (A road trip I am currently on, inspired by driving to the All Good Now Festival to catch Claypool Gold), I listened a lot to the new record from The Claypool Lennon Delirium, called The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy. A concept record (there's a through line story), I have to say this is one of my fav songs from it so far.
A reminder that all songs featured in this newsletter over the years are added to the giant mega super playlist of magnificents and magnificence which you can access with an effortless depress of this button. 👇
Fun thing I learned while doing the tour at Muscle Shoals studio during this Summer of Song road trip (I haven't posted any photos yet as I'm way behind in uploads). Cher was the first artist to record at the studio when it opened. She recorded with the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section musicians known as the "Swampers." The album cover is an image taken in front of the studio featuring Cher, Sonny, Jerry Wexler, and the musicians. She named the album "3615 Jackson Highway", which is the address of the studio. (It's a record of mostly covers and her first solo album.)
And here's the thing I never knew. Before Cher released that record, the building never had the address on the front. That's just the type/graphic they did on the record for the album title. Here's two screen caps of a video I took inside the studio (I forgot to take a photo) which shows to OG image with the building and no sign and the album with the address graphic. The studio later added it to the front of the building.
This is, in my book, the purest definition of a Fun Fact.
I mentioned in the podcast how I'm currently reading this book, "How to Write One Song" by Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame). Very much enjoying it. Pick it up from your local bookshop or library, rip through it, and write your first song.
The first half is a pep talk of sorts, the second half has some exercises you can try to get your one song going and help manifest lyrics. I think it is also useful for any creative person - the exercises are a good method for learning how to find and connect ideas.
I picked it up because, as some of you know, I would like to write a song one of these days. (I'm trying not to let my lack of guitar playing ability and skill hold me back.) RE the exercises: I have been collecting words and phrases forever in notebooks scattered everywhere, so it's nice to know I've always been on the right track!
Shameless Podcast Plug
Listen to audio versions of The Stream on my podcast, Field of Streams, available on 👉 all major podcasting platforms 👈
Here’s Apple
