Merton could have had his epiphany at Buc-ee’s,
a monastic cell in every pristine stall of Buc-ee’s!
How could I be alien to the cured meat pilgrims
who contemplate the wall of abundance at Buc-ee’s?
I read somebody loves us all and tonight I can see
they might wear a manager’s badge at Buc-ee’s.
A Jesus Loves This Hot Mess wine glass? Ring it up–
a vessel, a vision received only at Buc-ee’s.
Godspeed, you baby loggerheads, trekking to the sea,
pulled across four lanes by the light of Buc-ee’s.
In the gas pump glow, against the hum of the road,
I fall into the wide-open, brass arms of Buc-ee.
Rub his teeth, say a prayer to make good time. Ahead,
an exit to take in the dark. Above us, only Buc-ee’s.
Erin Keane is the author of Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me (Belt Publishing), one of NPR’s best books of 2022, editor of The Louisville Anthology (Belt Publishing, 2020), and author of three collections of poetry, including Demolition of the Promised Land, poems inspired by Bruce Springsteen. Her poems, essays, and journalism have been widely featured in regional and national publications, most recently in HAD, Necessary Fiction, Essay Daily, and Hit Repeat Until I Hate Music: The March Xness Anthology (Split/Lip Press). She is Chief Content Officer at Salon.com and on the poetry and creative nonfiction faculty of the Naslund-Mann MFA program at Spalding University.