On Steinbeck and Kerouac (Dualities)

26 Jan 2024

I love Steinbeck, but I hate the Kerouacs

I hate the beatniks, but love the boys east of eden,

How can a man love one, but not the other?

I think it’s a fear in me, of a place a little too close to home,

The little bit of drifter that resides in my soul,

The beatnik, the one who leaves all behind and goes away.

Kerouac hits it too hard, too on the nose for my comfort.

I still sometimes wish I could go away, but in a different sense,

Not the drifter who shrugs off responsibilities, 

But the soldier who misses the barracks, 

The man pulled wayward and westward by love,

The man who’s earned something, but it ain’t quite enough,

But he ain’t quite ready to let it all go, til he is.

The hypocrisy is there, and god I know it’s there, 

But I’m still a little ways away from finding a way to accept it all.