Road Trip U. S. A.

--for Matt Kenyon, artist, creator of A Giant Pool of Money

Drive with me. We'll race through Enterprise
and stop for lunch in Endeavor

before we exit the highway at Success.
Nobody ever named a town Debt or Depression.

Ten states host Bonanza, that's Prosperity
in Spanish, miners shouting about a lode of silver,

and Prosperity lies near Clover. Let's snap
some selfies at the Clover city limits

before we reach Cash, Dollar Bay, Dollars Corner.
Then on to Talent, Confidence, Jackpot — dusty

crossroads christened by settlers aiming to own.
We'll speed through those single-stoplight places

hell-bent on being something bigger,
busted boom towns, east and west. Drive with me,

we'll swing by Greenback, balance the books,
set land grabs against unlucky losses.

The landscape promises me, promises you,
and not every spot called Speculator went under.

Here's Money Island, houses for summer people
not five miles from my own front porch.