I Have Been To Las Vegas

I have been to Las Vegas
And on the whole, it was not a good experience.
But all the red dirt and plastic
Helped me to get to know America
In the way you can only get to know someone
Making love in a car, someone you normally
Limit your love-making with to a bed.
Faced with new difficulties,
Creative problem solving is required,
And you bear witness while trying
To get your pants off.

These parked cars and driving cars
Everywhere now and they leave that out
When they talk lovingly about the past
That there were cars parked on the streets
Back then as well, maybe fewer but equally
Insidious.

Once they were all machines, metal beasts
We could understand, it was like riding a horse
Or riding inside a horse I suppose,
But less bloody – the point is the
Muscles were mechanical
And everybody could relate.

Now we have digital cars, I think
And the thing about them is
Everything in unobservable,
All quiet on the western front.
You put in a quarter and they go,
And fuck man they go.

Somewhere in America children are howling
At the moon and breathing the dirt kicked up
By passing south-east Asian cars speeding
Through the noonish, electric nighttime
And it’s all our fault.