When I first came to America
I decided to learn it ways of saying
where my place is where I belong
so far away from the faces of my parents
I was learning my new way
At some truck stop I bought few CD’s
of Johnny Cash
I was told he is/was one of the biggest
America’s icons
so I listen to his music as the road in front
of me was coming like unavoidable beast
from the load speakers Mr. Cash was telling
me stories of America and it’s people and
I was sinking into it
but all was hearing was the tales of depression
and aggression and insanity and loneliness
narratives of madness and desperation and
sorrow and blue-collar jobs
I learned song’s titles like
God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Hurt
I Hung my Head
I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry
Folsom Prison Blues
Tear Stained Letter
and more
So at the bottom line Johnny Cash
made me leave the truck and I found my self
a job in a book-store
I’ve started reading the greatest American novelist
and poets and
decided from now on
to choose my teachers more
carefully
Peycho Kanev is the author of 4 poetry collections and two chapbooks. His collection Bone Silence was released in 2010 by Desperanto, NY and Уиски в тенекиена кутия (Whiskey in a Tin Can), 2013, Американски тетрадки (American Notebooks), 2010, Разходка през стените (Walking Through Walls), 2009 were published in Bulgaria. Peycho Kanev has won several European awards for his poetry and he’s nominated for the Pushcart Award and Best of the Net. Translations of his books will be published soon in Italy, Poland and Russia. His poems have appeared in more than 900 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Columbia College Literary Review, Hawaii Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Coachella Review, Two Thirds North, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others.