–For John Cassady

Oh really really Neal

his first love was the automobile

Drove a ‘34 Ford with suicide doors

and stick shift on the floor

Draggin’ down main to Colfax Avenue

Jumpin’ in the back seat boulevard

kicked back watching asses in the rearview

cruising past the high school

Clock on the dash reading 10:18

past the neon diner

last stop for Benzedrine

and onward to another scene

Chicks would rob a joint

just to buy him food

One hand on the wheel

the other in her mood

The blue-eyed kid and the wild-eyed bobby soxer

California surfers Tarot card sharks and word shooters

Found Ann-Marie in Frisco like a hurricane cock

didn’t need the Sexual Freedom League

Driving with white pills and pot

but was really addicted to the wheel

Came back to Old San Francisco

Flower children all over the streets

Carried star struck Ann-Marie in his arms

the Denver Kid he never returns

Traded her Chevrolet coupé

for an old Pontiac

Up the hills, down the curves

gear it down, pump the brakes

Old mother Ginsberg’s back seat drivin’

turning toward the Avalon

Driving

down Van Ness jumping parking meters

One hand on the gearshift

the other copping a feel

One hand up her dress

the other on the wheel

Stole a car in Denver just to hear it peel

just like drivin’ in the races

Stole a car in Denver just to hear it squeal

He moved so fast

he had one foot in Cincinnati the other in Kalamazoo

Women knew just what to do

and all wanted him to be true

Parked in front of Gough Street

in a 50’s red and white Plymouth Fury

Just back from seeing Kerouac, in a hurry

patrol car in the mirror

the old white and blacks

Drove past someone with some little white pills

heading into town

He jumped in the driver’s seat

and spun that Fury around.

The roads were paved with powder all the way to Mexico

and train tracks shined in the moon

Did hard time for two reefers

and came out smokin’ some boo

First Road Warrior

never knew what he did wrong

______________________

(from Some Mother’s Son

available at Amazon)

–pictures: Neal Cassady And Charles Plymell, 1963

Neal, Ann & the Plymouth Fury

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