Frederick Kwesi Great Agboletey
Route 66
Straight across boundless continental landmass
An ancient roadway
Cuts an animated swath of moving energy on steady concrete
Weaving its way through hearts and minds of a sea of heaving humanity-
Highway 66
Pulsating heart of this speeding nation
A phantasmagoria of unceasing imaginative grip
In restless collective conscience-
Streaming heart of this great
nation-
The landlubber’s ocean of unending stretches
Mighty roadway rolling into yonder lost horizon
Fading into far distances
Road’s end, a mirage of impressed reality-
Mighty roadway weaving through great and small alike
A thought on a signboard?
You signal varying, changing range
Of human emotion in palpable motion-
Here a journey began and a journey ended
A lifetime of meaningful/meaningless existence etched
Onto cold concrete and melting asphalt
Streaks etched into tarmac-
From lofty heights to dry plains
To very valley bottoms
Through highs and lows
Only constant, indifferent highway-
Cold comfort at height of mortal peril
Laughter and tears,
Alacrity and extreme weariness
Lassitude of unending monotonies, unrelieved tedium-
Then momentary discovery, in passing acknowledged
Tragedy and accomplishment,
All in a day’s journey
On this highway of travails
Meeting ground of great, simple and just insignificant-
Altogether, just people going about their ways,
Just uneventful common in commonplaces,
Calmness beyond belief as early morning dew
Moistens with thin coverage these desert road-
Simmering heat
Wavering nondescript deception of nonexistent water
Floating, shifting, clarity hovering
Disappearing-
Steamy nights,
Cold desert night,
Steamy swamps,
Sheets of rain
Sliding ice-
Freedoms call of independence
In bounded territories
Freewill contained in hasty motion
Right across its stretches-
Valour and cowardice,
Emergent gentleness,
Degenerate brutishness
Coalescing on one great platform-
Through rock to miry mud
Across unknown terrains
Through familiar grounds
Lonely stretches, unfriendly-
Oppressive turnpikes
Roller coasters of ordered chaos,
Barrelling down deserted deserts
Down this roadway of life-
Highway 66,
Pulsating vein of mechanised humanity in motion-
