Jack Kerouac

I was just passing through and stopped in a graveyard to smoke a joint stretch my legs look around and take a piss
the night before I was lost on the South Dakota border and ended up in a bar in Iowa being ignored by pretty women
my grandmother was dying the whole family was on their way to a town outside Madison I hate to fly so I was driving
the backroads 'cause you can't see anything on the highway
the day before I stood on a hill overlooking the Missouri river and watched an old man fly fish for about fifteen minutes he didn't catch anything and I was looking for something that's hard to define
it might have been the half-finished statue of Crazy Horse in the Black Hills that I didn't have time to check out
if I ever get back that way it might be finished but it won't be the same
I'm not looking much anymore I guess I found it and lost some stuff too along the way
but way back then while I switched from the joint to a cigarette
I looked at a headstone that read
Amy York April 9 1877 November 23 1899 a devoted wife and mother
I thought about her kids and those long winters that never end up here
I bet they were looking a long time for something that was hard to define if they ever did