Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WyoFile "Tales of I-80" -- "This road will give you religion, mister"

Don't know about anyone else, but wyomingarts can't think of I-80 without remembering lines from Barbara Smith's excellent poem "Interstate 80" (excerpt).

...even if you drive the same forty miles
morning and night to work
and know every pimple on the lady's ass
every curve or incline
you could drive it in your sleep or blind
like you do half of the time in January anyway
whiteout white knuckle terror
braced against the blast of triple trailers
whipping like rattlers in the ruts.
This road will give you religion, mister.

This poem was included in the 2003 anthology Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming. Barb recently retired from her teaching job at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs. She's a Wyoming Arts Council roster artist. 

Speaking of I-80, WyoFile wants your stories of this scarifying passage:

Just about everyone in Wyoming has an I-80 story, so WyoFile is launching Tales of I-80. We begin with a series of vignettes told by WyoFile’s own contributors. Now we want to hear your I-80 stories, whether it’s a white-knuckle experience, something from the odd-but-true files or something more sublime. A lot of life happens on I-80. Please share your story.



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