To Keep My Head from Flying Off

Once I was told that I have powerful neck muscles
And while I briefly wandered in my delusory grandeur,
I was gently reminded that those steel-cables of bones and sinew
Connecting my ass-self to my real-self, up there,
In my right mind, here in my western world,
Were there because they were exercised
Daily, in isometric desperation
To keep my head from flying off
Into the air,
Like some slingshot
Like a hot air balloon.
This head, cooked full of vapor and tattered dreams,
Non-sense and half sense
Mostly worthy of mild mockery,
Mostly runs that same old cassette
That plays and plays in the truck
Because breathless, I cannot depress the reject button,
Because I cannot seem to get ahead
And leave the back then or maybe when
Somewhere, softly abandoned by
The side of this bumpy road.