An Indiana Story

Indiana, Indiana USA
I have stayed there once for ten days.
I had booked an art show in Chicago
And stopped to stay in Indiana
In a state park alone.
I had a kayak and a cabin with a single bed.

Every day I went into the lake
(Or was it a river- I do not remember now)
Every evening I ate a baked potato and a salad.
I wrote a lot, doodled in my pad and slept good
With the the chipmunks and the birds.

Later I bought a new caravan in Indiana,
The kind you hook up behind your van.
I thought it will give me some freedom,
While doing art shows across the USA.

It ended up being a nightmare.
My second husband could not drive it
We could never maneuver it in reverse.
We ended up almost colliding with a train in Indiana.
He did not see the red lights of the train

I saw the red lights, but I did not shout out.
After a million fights,
where I have pointed the obvious
and was told
“Don’t you think I can SEE that?”
I had assumed he saw the red lights.

It was the kind of train crossing,
that did not have the safety arm
He was speeding and he did not step
on the brakes,
Instead, he veered us into a corn field.
We crashed, but were not harmed.

The Indiana’s Policeman wanted to charge
My husband with reckless driving.
I stood there quietly
He deserved to have been charged
He was a mindless driver.

The policeman asked the farmer
Who owned the corn field,
If he wanted to press charges
Against us, for damaging his crops.

The farmer was a kind old man
He said: "HELL NO!!"
He took us to his home,

gave us tea to calm our nerves,
Fixed our van AND our hitch

I gave him some prints of my art
And t-shirts with my art on it

for all his family.

The policeman never pressed any charges.

I have met a kind old man in Indiana,
So it will always have a warm place in my heart.