The Driver

In the predawn hours, the driver

goes out in the cold or the sticky dew

to look under the hood, inspect the engine,

the axles, the windshield, the tailpipe.

No level of care is too thorough

for the Earth's most precious cargo,

for an honest living.

for a literate people who can finally stand tall.

No price is too high.

Open your veins, open them again,

Arterial roads run dry.

save for steel scraps trucked away.

No price is high enough

to deliver the people their promise.

A bus driver's highest calling

is to deliver people and their promise.

A gardener's job is to move light up the food chain,

to put the light out of things that don't need it as much.

To lead in the world is a gardener's job,

and wherever there's a garden, there are weeds.

The devil was in the garden pulling weeds

and it smells of sulfur still today.