America — A New Yorker’s Thoughts

A would be Kerouac I went to hit the Midwest
Wondering would there I find America’s worst or best

On the coasts some call them flyover states
Denigrated as not with us – not our mates

Ask the Times, Wash Post or other news sources
They’re not worthy of us on our moral high horses

I always wondered if that made real sense
Or was this just an elitest defense

There was nothing to do but see for myself
So I drove away from the continental shelf

Just me and a car-full of multiple changes of dress
I wanted to fit in and not be an outsider I must confess

I hit Tulsa, Nashville, Memphis and Austin
The polar opposites of New York, LA and Boston

Along the way I passed roadside dilapidation
Causing a fair amount of rumination

There are people living here too I can see
They’re not doing so well it seems to me

I went to these places in the heart of the US interiors
Thought by coastal cities to be racists and moral inferiors

But when I met those in these places all in the raw
Just friendly warm people was all I saw

Only friendship, and even love, from these faux brigands beamed
I felt they’re my peeps after all, just as I had dreamed

But it wasn’t that simple after all to assess
There’s more to tell if you’ll hear my confess

It hit me from recalling a quick vignette
T’was while in Austin I had a small tete-a-tete

I made a safety remark for an oncoming biker’s child
Then the father cursed me out and me strongly reviled

I was taken aback and I admit it threw me
So out of place it made me feel a bit gloomy

I related this story to another Austiner that very day
He was vexed and embarrassed I’d been treated that way

That’s not the actions of a self-respecting Texan, he vehemently said
The guy’s a California transplant, as that’s how they’re bred

I digested his indignation with a grain of salt
Quick was the Texan to put a coastal city at fault

I now knew it all in my reflections
That the seeming contempt flews in bother directions

The epiphany for me was now made plain
So upsetting it is, and it is just insane

It’s the news we’re getting, which is truly horrific
Debasing us all to each-other instead of calling us terrific

Bad views don’t just sit alone on the coasts
And not in the middle either, despite similar boasts

It’s a two-way street are our divisions
We all need some major revisions

And this won’t happen if you stay in one place
You’ll just get more fake news which the good will erase

I urge us all to get round and enjoy the nation’s pleasures
Which are it’s people of course, who are wonderful treasures

All around me as I drove through the land
Those I met were just so grand

Those whom I met were only the best
From all directions, south, north, east and west