Was It Arizona Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Was it Arizona?

Endless road, in flat landscape of shrubs and sand, no elevations
no distant ridge of a mountain, no coast and sunlight gleaming on
a calm ocean.
Trapped, I drove slower and slower, doomed to drive on this road forever;
the thought of getting out and start running, when I saw a few trees at
the distance, soon some houses too and a petrol station,
I needed to fill up the tank; the attendant wasn't there walked over to a café,
where an old man sat reading his paper,
didn't look up when the swing door slammed shut behind him
A fat black woman, behind the counter, was watching daytime soap on
an ancient TV set
she turned and looked at me; I said: "coffee please."
She gave me a cup and said "fifty cents, " turned her massive back on me,
continued watching TV. I looked and out saw the attendant, hurried out,
wanted to be sure he didn't take off again; I never drank my coffee,
not that anyone took any notice.
The man looked foreign, and I said: "must be lonely living out here? "
"Yeah, but it sure beats living in Baghdad, the he murmured."