high speed drift on a prairie road

hot tires sing like a string being bowed

sudden town rears up then explodes

fragments resolve into white line code

whirl on silver wheels (chorus)



black earth energy receptor fields

undulate under a grey cloud shield

we outrun a river colour brick red mud

that cleaves apart hills soil rich as blood



highway squeeze in construction steam

stop caution hard hat yellow insect machines

silver steel towers stalk rolling land

toward distant stacks that shout "Feed on demand"



100 miles later the sky has changed

urban anticipation -- we get 4 lanes

redorange furnace sphere notches down

throws up silhouette skyline in brown



sundogs flare on windshield glass

sudden swoop skyward iron horse overpass

pass a man walking like the man in the moon

walking like his head's full of irish fiddle tunes



the skin around every city looks the same

miles of flat neon spelling well-known names

USED TRUCKS DIRTY DONUTS YOU YOU'RE THE ONE

fat wheeled cars squeal into the sun



radio speakers gargle top 40 trash

muzak soundtrack to slow collapse

planet engines pulsate in sidereal time

if you listen close you can hear the whine



(Burritt's Rapids 21/7/76)