Drifter Diaries
William Boxcar III
Ed. Note: Hizzer means his/her or him/her.
The urge to drift does not descend upon all in equal measure. For some a couple months in Europe are all they need for a lifetime. Real homebodies only need a weekend in Madison, WI to drift enough morally and spiritually. But once a full moon there arrives at the Greyhound Station that most rare species of freak. Yes, s/he is called the drifter. Don't ask hizzer too many questions.
Does the urge come hardwired in our brain? Are some predisposed to peripatetism? Yes. But many people attribute this urge to the evolutionary-sound strategy of finding new, fallow land into which to plant one's seed. No. Drifting is a physical deformity that makes one extremely sensitive to the seething, insufferable discontents of domestic life. We drift, biologically speaking, away from something, not toward something.
Drift away from what, exactly? Certainly a dead end job in Charleston, SC will start things in motion. Away to a tortured co-habitation with a lover haunted by an evil witch in Macon, GA. Blown away to a black market sales job visiting Gary, IN half-way houses. Only to get whisked away to a converted cookie factory in Oakland, CA. Are you making and distributing your own pamphlets yet?
The major malfunction with a drifter is hizzer heart is always two states away. Not to mention a soul left in New York, NY. And what about the small cache of books left in Eureka Springs, AK. Here is what that town teaches a drifter: don't go up in the hills to buy forged art from a hermaphrodite named Billy.
It can be scattering, the drifter's dementia. One wonders at the capacity to keep on keeping on that allows people to live with their affliction. A little drifting can be a good thing. Say you have run out of medication and the Greek club owner of inordinately violent temperament has learned you fondled his love toy. This is the time to get an E-saver fare, put the manifesto on ice.
But the real drifter keeps going and going, even after the Albanian hunchback enslaved hizzer into preparing Amazonian tribal foreskins as a medicinal aphrodisiac on Sullivan's Island, SC.
Drifters draw succor from their wonderful ancient role models. The heroes (great and small) who have gone before us in that never-ending quest for the next place. Odysseus wandered around the earth a couple times. Jesus of course drifted deftly across many media (earth, wind, fire, water.) And the legendary North Country Girl was infamous for tearing up towns and breaking down hearts.
Do not forget homegrown American drifter heroes like Johnny Appleseed and Typhoid Mary. America is both blessing and curse to the drifter. Her sheer breadth allows for many oases in which one can sup from shallow roots. But she is also home to many psychopaths who set insidious traps hoping to ensnare vulnerable drifters into perverted psychodramas. Like marriage and a job in Memphis, TN.
The open road is fraught with peril. But those rare born drifters will continue getting loose from ghastly 'home' and scatter about the land in discount airline jets.
And for you homebodies out there, remember what St. Dymphna said: It is good luck to give a drifter homemade sweet potato pie and ice cream (if the ice cream is also homemade that would be extra good luck.)
##^^##
Ed. Note: Hizzer means his/her or him/her.
The urge to drift does not descend upon all in equal measure. For some a couple months in Europe are all they need for a lifetime. Real homebodies only need a weekend in Madison, WI to drift enough morally and spiritually. But once a full moon there arrives at the Greyhound Station that most rare species of freak. Yes, s/he is called the drifter. Don't ask hizzer too many questions.
Does the urge come hardwired in our brain? Are some predisposed to peripatetism? Yes. But many people attribute this urge to the evolutionary-sound strategy of finding new, fallow land into which to plant one's seed. No. Drifting is a physical deformity that makes one extremely sensitive to the seething, insufferable discontents of domestic life. We drift, biologically speaking, away from something, not toward something.
Drift away from what, exactly? Certainly a dead end job in Charleston, SC will start things in motion. Away to a tortured co-habitation with a lover haunted by an evil witch in Macon, GA. Blown away to a black market sales job visiting Gary, IN half-way houses. Only to get whisked away to a converted cookie factory in Oakland, CA. Are you making and distributing your own pamphlets yet?
The major malfunction with a drifter is hizzer heart is always two states away. Not to mention a soul left in New York, NY. And what about the small cache of books left in Eureka Springs, AK. Here is what that town teaches a drifter: don't go up in the hills to buy forged art from a hermaphrodite named Billy.
It can be scattering, the drifter's dementia. One wonders at the capacity to keep on keeping on that allows people to live with their affliction. A little drifting can be a good thing. Say you have run out of medication and the Greek club owner of inordinately violent temperament has learned you fondled his love toy. This is the time to get an E-saver fare, put the manifesto on ice.
But the real drifter keeps going and going, even after the Albanian hunchback enslaved hizzer into preparing Amazonian tribal foreskins as a medicinal aphrodisiac on Sullivan's Island, SC.
Drifters draw succor from their wonderful ancient role models. The heroes (great and small) who have gone before us in that never-ending quest for the next place. Odysseus wandered around the earth a couple times. Jesus of course drifted deftly across many media (earth, wind, fire, water.) And the legendary North Country Girl was infamous for tearing up towns and breaking down hearts.
Do not forget homegrown American drifter heroes like Johnny Appleseed and Typhoid Mary. America is both blessing and curse to the drifter. Her sheer breadth allows for many oases in which one can sup from shallow roots. But she is also home to many psychopaths who set insidious traps hoping to ensnare vulnerable drifters into perverted psychodramas. Like marriage and a job in Memphis, TN.
The open road is fraught with peril. But those rare born drifters will continue getting loose from ghastly 'home' and scatter about the land in discount airline jets.
And for you homebodies out there, remember what St. Dymphna said: It is good luck to give a drifter homemade sweet potato pie and ice cream (if the ice cream is also homemade that would be extra good luck.)
##^^##
posted by RSS Spirit Combine | 12:04 PM
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