Oil Field Girls - Jerry Bywaters

Oil Field Girls
Jerry Bywaters 1940



One would think there would be more to say,
with these women at the roadside,
looking down on a billboard for Coca-Cola.

One might think that what is
will always be more complex
than what we can say of it.

And so here they are. They could turn
all our thinking, the way the road turns,
the way the signs point.

Count the signs.

And maybe you could spend the rest of your life
tracing that horizon
with black smoke, which is how the highway will curve,
and these women beside the curve
of the highway,
looking off to their left.

Count the posts. It could be an occupation.
Count everything there is.