Unfinished Poem

Editor’s Note: I flew from Amsterdam to Montreal in late October 1974. I took a bus from there to Davenport, Iowa. There was not a lot to do on the 24-hour bus trip so I wrote this poem/song. I never finished it. It’s a slice of that life.

Chicago Blues Poem (I'm going to Chicago)

I'm going to Chicago
     make no mistake about that,
Just got into Montreal
     but I'm leaving again real fast,
If there's one thing I can't wait to see
     it's the faces of Chicago women looking at me.

There's a lot of people talking about Niagara Falls
     they say this bus should go that way,
Man they got balls.
They just don't understand at all,
     Chicago's the way for us all.

Now I ain't no Jack Kerouac,
     I ain't no James Dean.
Yet if you cross my path
     I'll look at you real mean.

If there's one thing I do look like,
     it's a man with Chicago on his mind.

~ Nov. 1, 1974