Ron Whitehead

On First Reading Jack Kerouac’s
ON THE ROAD

Down and Out in Kentucky
Part VII

For Madmen Only

Through We’d just finished our second fifth of Southern Comfort
and the mescaline was kickin in

Jimi Hendrix crosses borders threatening to ascend towards heaven
with lightning and thunder he plays

Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” stereo loud as it will go
here in the only underground bookstore in Kentucky

For Madmen Only

shelves and bins stocked with books and records from
City Lights and bookpeople San Francisco

Atlantis and Alligator New Orleans
teas and herbs candles and incense from mountain communes

turquoise blue Spiritual Sky
and next door in

The Store

our head shop
paraphernalia water beds posters GROW YOUR OWN

blankets and clothes from India Native American jewelry
and we’re serving the new consciousness

inspired by the one and only King of The Dharma Bums

Jack Kerouac

and yes there’s Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Gary Snyder Richard Brautigan Ken Kesey
Allen Ginsberg William Carlos Williams William Blake
Hermann Hesse Knut Hamsun Dostoevski Nietzsche
Bukowski Thomas Merton The Dalai Lama Gandhi
Burroughs LeRoi Jones Diane di Prima
Hunter S. Thompson
and more more more

with Robert Johnson Hound Dog Taylor Howlin’ Wolf
Jimi Hendrix Patti Smith
and always Bob Dylan Bob Dylan Bob Dylan
on the stereo

but we’re Down and Out in Kentucky
failin like no others dare fail

and we’re always on the outside outsiders outlaws
bein told you don’t fit you ain’t shit what the fuck you doin here

and so On The Road

is where we live travelin travelin travelin
in search of IT

headed out of Kentucky cross the usa coast to coast
down to Mexico determined to

keep on keepin on truckin til the wheels fall off and burn
just passin thru searchin searchin yes after all these years

still searchin for IT and yet somewhere somehow one day one moment
at the heights of Machu Picchu we went further in traveled deeper

on the inner road we entered the third kingdom the fourth dimension
where lies the synthesis of apparently irreconcilable differences

and in the heart of The Big Bang Epiphany we discovered
that the power and the glory of IT is bound in the grace

of forgiveness of Beating Karma through love compassion
of persevering through desperate circumstances so now

we GO GO GO we Never Give Up recognizing Now that

The Road that Jack Kerouac’s Road that our Road

always leads On.

Copyright (c) 2007 Ron Whitehead