Steady On (after Wayne Hogan)

I always worried about the wagon wheels 

in Little House on the Prairie. Often

they gave out, and you could see that coming.

One man driving depended and trusted

as he must. A solitary man with hands on

the reins, symbolic yet subservient to

the horse and fate, might often be called

a man of few words. Steady on, a likely

mantra individually thought yet not

even whispered, Just lumbering face forward

into the what-ifs on every ride 

thinking or not thinking always alone 

out here in weather half at night half

daylight discovering what comes as he goes.