AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ATLAS AND GAZETTEER (aka Heartbreak Hotel)

by Tom Lyford

I am the Carlsbad Caverns
emptydark
voluminous

I am the Petrified Forest
pricklybrittle
sterile

I am the Badlands
the Waste Lands
Misery Gore

Dry Gulch
Death Valley
the Hole in the Wall

No Man’s Land
the Doldrums
Three Mile Island

Boot Hill
the River Styx and
Dead Man’s Curve

Today I am Lake Wobegon
Desolation Row and
the Tallahatchie Bridge…

Tonight I’ll be a walk down
Lonely Street. Hell, I’ll be the
goddamn Heartbreak Hotel…