This is a story told in poems. I started writing them when I went to work for Philips in the Dutch town of Apeldoorn in 1990.

At first, I wrote them on the white board in my office, passing the time in quiet moments. Later I switched to the computer.  I’ve worked on them on and off through the decades, purely for my own pleasure, with no thought whatsoever of publication.

But I thought it would be nice to put them out now, for anyone who might like to read them.

Here’s the opening poem below.

 Shakespeare Drives a Chevy

Shakespeare drives a Chevy

'57

lime green,

whitewalls.

Keeps a bottle in the dash

and a pack of spare smokes

by the wheel.

Some days,

he doesn't know

which way

the sun

is coming up.

Highways, hotels,

coffee cups

and ashtrays,

dead bottles

rattling in the trash -

they're all one

raucous

Day-Glo panorama

splattered on

scraps of paper,

snapping in the

cold Nevada breeze.