First Time Out West Poem by Charles Chaim Wax

cannot go on
forty miles from the Colorado border
in Kansas
temperature at
one hundred and four
unbelievable heat desolation
humidity
enervating.
started out in Salina
called Boulder Holiday Inn
all rooms taken.
stopped in Collyer, Kansas
pop.187
wide street blistering.
the couple
in the only store in town
said they were from
Gunninson, Colorado.
'they got a Holiday Inn? ' I asked
'cause Holiday Inn
delivers the premium cold air,
something to do with conduits and
special insulation
only place I stay.'
'never gets past 70, '
the saintly woman said
about her home town,
'and at night
all the frosty stars
you can gulp.'