Driving through miles and miles of open desert.

Joshua trees, sage brush, lizards, snakes and salt flats.

The reality of the extraterrestrial highway

involved ET Jerky, an antique car, and a decapitated cow.

At an intersection, in the middle of nowhere

ET Jerky, the only shop for miles

They bought treats and a fortune

while I sat alone in the car.

On a pee break stretching our legs

I found the decomposing head of a cow

Just sitting there beneath Joshua trees

who did this? Aliens or gun happy rednecks?

We pulled into Rachael, hardly a town

A blue 50’s Sedan sat facing the road.

Inside, unmoving, sat a family of dummies

With green skin and coal black eyes

I wonder what lies beyond the desolate hills

Government secrets, armed guards or downed spacecraft?

Looking up into the sky, perhaps to catch a moving light

Are they watching us?

Night falls with brilliant stars overhead

My sweetie tired from a long dusty drive

No actual ghost towns were found.

Just poverty sprinkled with graffiti and garbage.

In Tonopah, we pull into the Clown Motel

As advertised, the scariest motel in the world.

Scary? No, more like…

A sad slice of American kitsch

The original owner loved clowns

The tired clerk said in a thick Indian accent

Buried in the old cemetery out back

In silence, we browsed the sad clown museum. 

The motel was painted in bright colors

to conceal the decay and aging structure.

Each room contained clown figurines and paintings

yet, our had broken windows, and dirty carpet

Later, walking through the cemetery at night

dry, dusty and bleak.

A voice said, “leave” to Cletus

It gave me chills.