RUNNING THE SOUTHWEST

BY DRIVER/POET/ARTIST TREVOR HARDWICK

There are lots of places in this country that are beautiful to run through.  This poem is for those of you who run I-40 in the great Southwest.  I love that part of the country.  When I was a kid, we lived in Amarillo and my dad ran for Pirkle Freightlines.  Quite often he’d pass through Amarillo and grab one of us kids and take us with him out to California and back.  I remember thinking to myself, “Who wouldn’t want to do this for a living?”  It’s beautiful running across the open desert when the sun is just coming up.  If you run this stretch of pavement, I hope you realize what a blessing it is to have a front row seat to one of God’s finer masterpieces.  This poem is called “Who Says You Can’t Have it All?”  Enjoy!!

Who Says You Can’t Have it All?
By Trevor Hardwick

A flat-top Peterbilt with flat-top stacks,
Yankin’ on a reefer or an old bull rack.
I may be sittin’ low, but I’m walkin’ tall,
So who says you can’t have it all?

Firing down the 40 in my tricked-out rig,
Cali out to Texas baby, that’s my gig.
Learning how to listen to the highway’s call,
Who says you can’t have it all?

The sun is always bouncin’ off the paint on my hood,
The moon will glow, the way the Lord said it should.
I nap beside a prairie and I hear a coyote call,
Who says you can’t have it all?

I run this diesel pretty hard,
The days turn into years.
Tomorrows in my windshield,
And the past is in my mirrors.

I can dig the little things this truckin’ life can bring,
A summer storm in Texas, or a Tucumcari spring.
Or what about winter snow, in Flagstaff, when it falls,
Who says you can’t have it all?

I idle through a little town in west New Mexico,
Kids are waving at me with their faces all aglow.
I honk the horn, wave right back, having such a ball,
Who says you can’t have it all?

Have you ever parked at Yellow Horse at dawn,
The sun is almost up, and the stars are almost gone.
The tribal land is painted in the colors of the fall,
Who says you can’t have it all?

I’m thankful for the chance I get,
To see the things I see.
And make a living in this land,
Of opportunity.

Thank you Lord, for giving me, a job I truly love,
My family back at home, another gift from up above.
I know that You provide, good things great and small,
I don’t believe them when they say, I can’t have it all.