![\"041417-1LIT\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/041417-1LIT.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEditor’s Note: Marlow is his own man. Like, totally. <\/p>\n
– The Editorial Board<\/p>\n
El Dorado<\/p>\n
I found one of my old state highway maps from a cross country trip in 2005. It prompted this memory:<\/p>\n
no chance at all,
\ncompletely cut off from
\neastern imperial cities,
\nI was a middle aged man
\nriding my motorcycle
\nthrough Kansas
\non the way to a rendezvous
\nwith Steve
\nmy stomach began growling
\nand the bike stopped
\nat a little cafe
\nin El Dorado.
\nlocals were there
\nin force.
\nI sat at table
\nin the back
\nso I could see the others,
\nI ordered and the
\nfood arrived.
\nthe meal was
\ntasty
\nso was the
\ncoffee.
\nthe waitress was
\nunlike the other women
\nthere.
\nshe was natural
\ngently humorous.
\nothers at nearby tables
\nsaid funny crazy
\nendearing things
\npeople laughed
\ngood clean
\npleasant
\nlaughs<\/p>\n
I watched
\nthe sun begin to shine on Central Street
\nbeyond the
\nwindows
\nI wanted to stay
\nin that cafe
\nit had possession
\nof me
\neverything
\nwas beautiful
\nthere
\nit would always stay beautiful<\/p>\n
I had to go
\nSteve would be waiting for me in Hays
\nI told myself
\nthat it was time
\nto mount up and ride.
\nI thought once more,
\nI\u2019ll just sit
\nhere and stay<\/p>\n
but I rose and entered the El Dorado sunlight
\nI found my bike
\nand looked back at the cafe
\nas the bike accelerated out of town
\nthen around a curve
\ninto some hills<\/p>\n
I looked straight ahead
\nwondering if the others
\nat the cafe
\nhad noticed
\nthe magic<\/p>\n
I looked one last time
\nin the rear view mirrors
\nto see if El Dorado
\nwas still there.
\nthere was nothing in them
\nexcept for
\nfields of
\ngolden corn<\/p>\n
I listened to the
\nthrum of the
\nmotorcycle
\nengine,
\nthe sound
\nof the tires
\non the pavement<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2017 From My Isle Seat
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor’s Note: Marlow is his own man. Like, totally. – The Editorial Board El Dorado I found one of my old state highway maps from a cross country trip in 2005. It prompted this memory: no chance at all, completely cut off from eastern imperial cities, I was a middle aged man riding my motorcycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15776,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15774\/revisions\/15776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}