The Road Ahead Poem by Mark Heathcote

Focus on the road ahead
Those cateyes glowing in the dark
When half the world's asleep
And footsore wayfarer's
Men like me can't another step abide to take
And ache and wish they were dead.

Focus on the road ahead
Whatever the gale
Whatever pothole you hit
Remember the meanness of love
Didn't send you cartwheeling, spinning
For real love never sends you, off the road.

Drive till dawn, and mourn-
Not the sunlight on a barren field
That stretches out on every bank
And fights its corner on every flank
Focus on the road ahead
More so when a teary wet fog, creeps in without a sound.

Focus on the road ahead
When you're in a bind when you're, lost
And you're home has turned to dust
A cropless desert with a Joshua-tree-lust
Focus on the destination of one leading to another
How you're only leaving the desert for the Bayou
To put down roots be really, rediscovered.